Gulf of Tonkin incident

Answer 1

Although riverine warfare had been going on in South Vietnam for years, the Gulf of Tonkin became the first "sea-battle" of the war, when on 02 August 1964 3 NVN (North Vietnamese Navy) P4 Torpedo Boats engaged the US destroyer USS Maddox in a running gun battle.

The Maddox fired her 5" mounts & the Torpedo Boats fired torpedoes and 25mm machineguns. The Maddox was hit at least once from the NVN guns, the torpedoes missed. At least one NVN Torpedo Boat was reported sunk by both sides (USN F8 Crusader jet fighter bombers had also joined the fray).

Of interest, is the fact that this sea battle actually may have set up the "real incident" that caused the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. On the 4th the Maddox, joined this time by the destroyer USS Turner Joy (now preserved as a museum in Washington state), had radar contacts of more NVN boat attacks and again, engaged with 5" gunfire. More jets were called in, but they reported no boats. Then the destroyers stated that possibly there had been no NVN boats. But this incident went to the White House as a second attack, thus triggering the "Tonkin Gulf Resolution"; turning the guerrilla war of Vietnam into a conventional war...with the landing of conventional US ground troops in South Vietnam in 1965.

The reason this incident is of interest, besides triggering the "conventional ground troop" deployment, is that those radar sitings on the 4th may actually have been (originally) actual radar observations of the P6 NVN boats attempting to tow in (rescue) their damaged P4 Torpedo Boat from the first attack on the 2nd of August. In another words, there actually may have been NVN boats out there. But their purpose may have been mis-identified; as an attack instead of a downed boat recovery. Because, what no one knew (remember both the USN and the NVN reported one torpedo boat sunk in action) is that that torpedo boat NEVER SANK! So...they may have went out to recover it, and in doing so triggered the next event.

Answer 2

1. A sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's 135th Torpedo Squadron & the destroyer USS Maddox on 02 August 1964.

2. A sea battle between the "Tonkin Ghosts" (possibly no real enemy) and the destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy on 04 August 1964.

Answer 3

Sea battle between naval units of the North Vietnamese Navy and the US Navy.