4. Fact: The US Navy, the Secretary of Defense at the time, and the NSA admitted the Gulf of Tonkin attacks never happened.
Even before President Johnson addressed the American people to inform them of the attack on American warships the US Naval commander at the scene was questioning whether the attacks occurred as reported. Robert McNamara, then Secretary of Defense, testified before Congress three years later that the event, as reported by Johnson to the American people, had never happened. A report by the National Security Agency (NSA) declassified in 2005, stated that Maddox engaged North Vietnamese patrol boats in August 2, but that Maddox fired the first shots. The report stated that no North Vietnamese naval vessels were present on August 4, and that the US Navy had in effect been firing at shadows. One of the officers on duty at the Pentagon at the time of the “attacks” was Daniel Ellsberg.
