Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Johnson ran on the pledge in 1964 that there be no escalation of the Vietnam war- although he planned on doing exactly that. He had intense support from his military chiefs pushing him to enter the war with direct force. They believed the backward nation would "will fall easily to our massive power." Summer of 1964 an American destroyer (torpedo boats had fired on the destroyer Maddox) is involved in a small incident, in the Gulf of Tonkin - off Vietnam. Aug. 2nd, first attack - single bullet. Aug. 4th misread radar sightings... Did not matter National Emergency is called by president. Call to arms is had to resist. The Gulf of Tonkin resolution gave Johnson a mandate to conduct operations in Vietnam as he saw fit... to escalate as he liked.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution is of historical significance because it gave U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, for the use of conventional military force in Southeast Asia. Specifically, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist "any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty." This included involving armed forces. The unanimous affirmative vote in the House of Representatives was 416-0.
What prompted the military force?
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution (officially, the Southeast Asia Resolution, Public Law 88-408) was a joint resolution of the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964 in response to a sea battle between the North Vietnamese Navy's Torpedo Squadron 135^[1] and the destroyer USS Maddox on 02 August 1964, and an alleged second naval engagement between North Vietnamese torpedo boats and the US destroyers USS Maddox and USS Turner Joy on 04 August 1964, in the Tonkin Gulf; both naval actions are known collectively as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.