Manufacturing Consent_ The Political Economy of the Mass Media - Edward S. Herman [153]
This may well explain why the public has apparently been willing to accept the tales about media treachery. But among the educated elites, the explanation may lie elsewhere: in a totalitarian cast of mind that regards even the actual level of media subservience to the state as inadequate and a threat to order and privilege by the “forces of anarchy . . . on the march.”
5.5. SOME CRUCIAL EVENTS OF THE WAR
5.5.1. THE TONKIN GULF INCIDENT
By mid-1964, there was a growing consensus among Vietnamese in favor of a negotiated political settlement, while the United States was maneuvering with increasing desperation to evade what internal documents describe as “premature negotiations.” The reason, as frankly explained, was that the United States was politically isolated, in opposition to the NLF, the non-Communist opposition, and even the generals. It was therefore regarded as necessary to expand the war to the North to “obtain [the DRV’s] cooperation in bringing an end to the Viet Cong insurgency” and to “persuade or force the DRV to stop its aid to the Viet Cong and use its directive powers to make the Viet Cong desist” (Ambassador Maxwell Taylor). Intelligence, meanwhile, concluded that “the basic elements of Communist strength in South Vietnam remain indigenous.”94
U.S.-run military operations against North Vietnam began on February 1, 1964 (OPLAN-34A), using South Vietnamese and “third-country” mercenaries, “presumably mostly Nationalist Chinese,” according to Kahin. These operations were officially “designed to result in substantial destruction, economic loss, and harassment.”95 On July 30–31, Saigon Navy vessels attacked North Vietnamese islands, eliciting an official DRV protest to the International Control Commission on July 31. The U.S. destroyer Maddox, conducting an electronic espionage operation in that general area, entered the twelve-mile zone regarded by North Vietnam as its territorial waters on August 2. The Maddox was challenged by North Vietnamese patrol boats, fired “warning shots,” and was hit by a single bullet in the ensuing battle, in which the patrol boats were damaged or destroyed by the destroyer and U.S. aircraft. On August 3, Secretary of State Dean Rusk sent a (secret) cable to Ambassador Taylor, stating that “We believe that present Op Plan 34 A activities are beginning to rattle Hanoi, and Maddox incident is directly related to their efforts to resist these activities.” The Maddox was returned to the area along with the destroyer Turner Joy on August 3, and on August 3 and 4 Saigon naval vessels bombarded North Vietnamese coastal facilities, “quite possibly one that the destroyer’s electronic surveillance had activated and located,” Kahin observes. There was some indication that the U.S. destroyers might have come under attack by North Vietnamese patrol boats on August 4, although Captain John Herrick of the Maddox was unsure, and radioed that reports “appear very doubtful” and that there were “No actual sightings by Maddox,” recommending “complete evaluation before any further action.” Subsequent evidence indicates that almost certainly no attack took place.96
On August 5, President Johnson publicly denounced the “open aggression on the high seas against the United States of America” by the North Vietnamese, while the DRV and China stated that “the so-called second Tonkin Gulf incident of 4 August never occurred” (Chinese government statement). On August 5, U.S. planes bombed North Vietnamese installations and destroyed North Vietnamese patrol boats. After testimony by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara in which he falsely claimed that the Maddox “was operating in international waters, was carrying out a routine patrol of the type we carry out all over the world at all times,” Congress passed a resolution authorizing the president to “take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression” (416 to 0 in the House, Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening alone in opposition in the Senate). This August 7 resolution was subsequently