Excerpts from Letters to Mom in italics.
09 August 1964
This is one of those rare occasions when I've been forced to work on a weekend.
Could the infamous incident that occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin, the retaliatory first bombing of North Vietnam by 64 U.S.Navy fighter-bombers and Congressional passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution be related to the heightened work schedule? Would the Soviets take some provocative or retaliatory action along the Iron Curtain in Europe in support of their North Vietnamese client?History will record that attacks on the U.S. Destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy occurring between August 2nd and 4th by North Vietnamese torpedo boats were preceded by covert attacks on North Vietnam by South Vietnamese torpedo boats operating in the same vicinity. The North Vietnamese apparently associated the patrol boat attacks with the destroyer patrols. To add to the considerable confusion, the destroyers were not aware of the covert action that stirred up the hornet's nest. But the Maddox was warned by intelligence about impending attacks on August 2. Joined by the Turner Joy, the two destroyers were ordered to resume the patrol despite intelligence reports that there might be hostile actions by North Vietnamese PT boats.
The predicted attackers, on August 4, were picked up on radar at 2041 and had closed to 7,000 yards by 2239. For two hours the destroyers evaded what lookouts and sonar rated as torpedoes and opened fire on contacts that were visually identified by Turner Joy crew as P-4 motor torpedo boats. At least that is what supposedly occurred.
In 1995, North Vietnamese General Giap responded to a question posed by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and flatly stated there was no attack on 04 August 1964. Furthermore, the 02 August attack had been ordered by a local commander, not by Hanoi, contrary to the assumption by Washington.
On August 7, 1964, in response to the "unprovoked" attacks, the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly approves the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the White House the legal power to fight the war in Vietnam.
However, I'm not busy at the moment and hope you don't mind this impersonal touch [letter is typed].
Thanks a lot for the JFK half-dollar. I'm keeping that in my locker for safe-keeping. Over here the Germans are nuts about Kennedy and some of the GI's have sold those half-dollars for five bucks apiece. Some have even reported obtaining much nicer things for one of the JFK coins. Anyway it would be a lot of fun getting rid of several hundred; sort of like walking around a women's prison with a fistful of pardons.
If I can remember when I get back to the barracks, I'd like to enclose some election jokes contained in last week's Newsweek. I got a kick out of them and I'm sure you will too. Incidently [sic], I've been buying that magazine every week for about a half-year. I guess I'll start a subscription soon. Have you ever read it? They have some good writers and editorialists. Well, that is about it for now. I gotta do a little work.
The enclosed Newsweek clipping dated August 3, 1964, under the Life and Leisure banner provides a sampler of election humor. Here are two:
"Goldwater looks at the world through a rose-colored bombsight."
"LBJ on South Vietnam: We're only there in an advisory capacity… Last week we dropped 4,000 pounds of advice on one position alone."
AG2 Fehr, sitting in the snack bar on base, read in the Stars and Stripes newspaper about LBJ's retaliatory bombing of targets in North Vietnam on 05 August 1964 following the Gulf of Tonkin attacks. He felt a surge of patriotic emotion that could not be suppressed. Yet, the youngster realized the bombing could lead to war. He was anxious to check the top secret cables and summaries back in the shop.