Lyric Hildner

11/19/15
Ally Johnson
Humanities 10
While we do know that North Vietnam admitted to bombing the United States
ship, the U.S.S. Maddox, the United States of America still used it as a cover to propel
themselves into war.
The North Vietnamese government, or the Democratic Republic of Vietnam,
openly admitted to bombing the U.S.S. Maddox. In a statement made by the
spokesman of the Vietnam Peoples Army High Command regarding U.S. warships
activities in the North Vietnamese territorial waters, he stated that it was not an
unprovoked attack. He backed that up by saying: The shelling by U.S. warships of
islands belonging to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the bombing of North
Vietnamese localities near the Vietnam-Laos border by U.S. aircraft coming from the
direction of Laos. (source 9) This is proposing that northern Vietnamese officials did in
fact, gave word to torpedo the Maddox. He also stated that they have been aware of the
U.S. operations in aiding the northern governments enemy, South Vietnam. While
reading through this document, I found multiple places where the North Vietnamese
people gave reason to their attacks. Besides the ones above, I found different reasons,
such as the U.S. increase activities in the airspace above Northern Vietnam, by
dropping spy commandos. The main reason I found for the admittance of bombing the
Maddox was in two parts. The one I found above, about the bombings of Vietnamese
islands, and another area at the bottom of the statement getting more specific about the
island bombings by providing dates and locations. The statement was made just two
days after the U.S.S. was bombed, which means that they were quick to respond to the
bombing. They used it as a warning to the U.S., it that makes sense. Therefore, we
know that North Vietnam bombed the U.S.S. Maddox, thus spiraling into war.
The United States of America used the bombing of the U.S.S. Maddox as a way
to start a war to defend themselves. By defend, I mean that the U.S. was trying to find
a logical reason to go fight in Vietnam. Saying that they were defending themselves so
that the American people would be okay with the fighting and wouldnt protest the
government. The U.S. had been planning for months before to start an attack on the
Northern Vietnamese government, but hadnt found a good way to start it. In a telegram
from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge in Saigon, to the U.S. Department of State, one
main point came up. They said: It would help here (Vietnam), and possibly in Laos and
Thailand, if there were some screams from North Vietnam that they had been hit.
(source 7) They wanted to get responses from them, to show that they were a force to
be reckoned with. The telegrams even revealed that the U.S. had been talking about
acertain methods of attack. The example from the telegram was as follows: Could
rocket carrying planes, flying along the Vietnam-Laos border, let something go on the

pretext that they had been fired on and were firing back? (source 7) The men behind
the telegram were trying to find a way to start an attack, without the world immediately
looking at the U.S. as the culprit. They were trying to plan a secret attack, that would
look like some local people, most likely South Vietnamese people, had started the
attack. I found that piece of information, the part about using in country people or
businesses to attack, in a telegram back to the Ambassador from the Secretary of State,
Dean Rusk. They wanted to use an in country solution. Publicity seems almost
inevitable to us here for any attack that did significant damage. (source 5) This shows
that the U.S. was trying to keep it a secret. The telegram also gave us the final answer
pertaining to using an in country method of attack. We are using a GVN - [South
Vietnamese] or U.S.-acknowledged enterprise as part of our main planning track. They
went to Vietnam trying to use a secret attack, and to protect the freedom of its people.
In all reality, the United States of America was launching into a bigger war
against communist influence in the south-eastern portion of Asia. In a letter addressed
to the President of the United States at that time, Lyndon B. Johnson, it was said: That
the U.S. cannot tolerate the loss of southeast Asia to communism. (source 4) That right
there says the entire thing. I believe that the Maddox explosion was just used as a way
to start war against the Indochina countries to stop the Soviet Union and Chinas
communist influence. It is the hope and best estimate of most of your advisers that a
decision of this kind can be executed without bringing a major reply from Red China,
and still less from the Soviet Union. (source 4) In many propaganda posters and
messages from the United States to its people and ally countries, they said that the
fighting in Vietnam was to defend freedom of the people in the area. The second quote
above is a good example of what the U.S. was trying to do. Plan secret attacks, but not
to fight for the civilians of Vietnam. They wanted to get a foothold in the governments of
the countries, so that communism wouldnt spread. In the resolution made by the United
States Congress agreeing with the President to go to war, they stated: To assist any
member of protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defence Treaty requesting
assistance in defense of its freedom. They said that they were going to go to Vietnam
to protect freedom, but in telegrams between high ranking officials, they said otherwise.
Communism's defeat was the United States goal in the wars that it has caused. The
Vietnam war, and the Maddox bombings, were all a ploy to control communist spread in
the southeast corner of Asia.