Gulf of Tonkin Incident

On August 2 and 4, 1964, the USS Maddox reported being attacked by North Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. This incident led to the passage of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964, which gave President Lyndon B. Johnson broad authority to escalate U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. Later investigations revealed that while the first attack did occur, the second attack likely never happened.