Took decades for our government to admit they had lied to us about the Gulf of Tonkin incident

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2261

30-year Anniversary: Tonkin Gulf Lie Launched Vietnam War

Media Beat (7/27/94)

By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon

30-year Anniversary: Tonkin Gulf Lie Launched Vietnam War

Media Beat (7/27/94)

By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon

<snip>"American Planes Hit North Vietnam After Second Attack on Our Destroyers; Move Taken to Halt New Aggression", announced a Washington Post headline on Aug. 5, 1964.

That same day, the front page of the New York Times reported: "President Johnson has ordered retaliatory action against gunboats and 'certain supporting facilities in North Vietnam' after renewed attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin."

But there was no "second attack" by North Vietnam — no "renewed attacks against American destroyers." By reporting official claims as absolute truths, American journalism opened the floodgates for the bloody Vietnam War.

A pattern took hold: continuous government lies passed on by pliant mass media...leading to over 50,000 American deaths and millions of Vietnamese casualties.

[gratuitous]

1. It only took them nine years to figure out the lies that led to the Iraq invasion

Of course, when penning his little confession, Bill Keller of the New York Times managed to admit that the Newspaper of Record got it wrong, but because all the other Kewl Kids did, too, the Times was simultaneously absolved from any sin of error or omission. The only people who got it right on Iraq were just a bunch of dirty fucking hippies, and they're always wrong, except when they're not, but because it's for the wrong reasons, they still can't be right.

[Maccagirl]

4. Yep

and has happened over and over and it will keep happening.

[DURHAM D]

2. Could you provide a link to the part about the Government admitting they lied?

[NNN0LHI]

5. The link from the original Reuters is broken so here is the DU link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5503466

US skewed evidence of 1964 Tonkin attack: document

Fri Dec-02-05

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence officials in 1964 skewed evidence of an attack on two U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin to support claims of communist aggression that led to a massive escalation of the Vietnam War, according to a newly declassified government document.

An article by a National Security Agency historian, released by the NSA this week along with intelligence reports and other related documents, said officials at the spy agency withheld nearly 90 percent of intelligence on the August 4, 1964, incident to back allegations of a North Vietnamese attack.

"It is not simply that there is a different story as to what happened. It is that no attack happened that night," NSA historian Robert Hanyok wrote.

Hanyok's article, which appeared in a classified NSA publication in 2001, was based on a review of newly discovered signals intelligence documents from 41 years ago.

[DURHAM D]

6. Thanks - I didn't realize the NSA had admitted their mistake/lie.

Looks like the NSA lied to LBJ.

[NNN0LHI]

7. You are more than welcome

This didn't get a lot of coverage back in 2005 when it was reported. Lot of other stuff going on during that period. It got a small mention on the 5:00 PM news and maybe another mention or two during the day on cable but the story wasn't really pushed.

Reason I can remember it was because I had basically believed the governments version of events until I seen this disclosed and it hit me kind of hard that I had been duped into believing a lie for over 40 years. Tends to make one cynical.

:hi:

Don

[Submariner]

3. It was a moment of "American Exceptionalism"

Unless you've been there, there was no weirder feeling than the moment you graduated from high school and found out the military draft was staring you in the face. After 12 years of having Sister Perpetual Agony teaching you "thou shalt not kill" and "love thy neighbor", all of a sudden there is LBJ and McNamara telling us to get ready to kill Vietnamese, or go to Leavenworth as a draft dodger.

Great fucking choice. Millions of lives altered forever by lying government assholes.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Anyone who would have suggested this was the case for over 4 decades ...

... would have been considered a conspiracy theorist. You would have been laughed at and derided for questioning the government line.

Four fucking decades. That is troubling. See how easy it is to be manipulated?

Don