Gulf of Tonkin: 2008 Style

ThinkProgress congratulates Ron Paul for being the only GOP Presidential candidate not advocating war with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz encounter. Juan Cole analyzes the facts including some Pentagon “tinkering” with the evidence.

Let’s recall that the casus belli for our escalation in what is now known as the Vietnam War was the Gulf of Tonkin incident back in August 1964. We were told that the North Vietnamese navy fired on the USS Maddox on August 2 and on the USS Turner Joy on August. We now know that the second incident did not happen and it was the Maddox that fired first on August 2.