What Really Happened at the Gulf of Tonkin?

Matt Welch | December 7, 2005

Read it and weep. Not least because it took the government five years before letting us know what it already didn't.

Comments

Probably a Fool For Asking|12.7.05 @ 4:55AM|#

Flight 93. Was it shot dow? Were WTC1 & 2 brought down by explosives? Will the media use this as an excuse to increase the FOIA budget that their paymasters allot?

Probably a Fool For Posting To|12.7.05 @ 5:23AM|#

Should read: will Matt & Cathy & the gang use this as a Golden Opportunity to discuss an increase in the FOIA budget with the kind underwriters who make Reason good and could make it even better.

|12.7.05 @ 8:11AM|#

Goddammit, warn us when there's a .pdf involved.

|12.7.05 @ 8:18AM|#

Probably a Fool-The hell?

Rich Ard|12.7.05 @ 8:25AM|#

Will the media use this as an excuse to increase the FOIA budget that their paymasters allot?

Hopefully.

|12.7.05 @ 8:34AM|#

Dave W., I have it on good authority that CIA agents boarded those ships, force-fed the sailors some high fructose corn syrup, and then issued them handguns that fire if bumped. Of course, I can't prove this scientifically, because science is inherently limited in what it can do. However, faith can prove it.

OK, I'm a bad person.

Rich Ard|12.7.05 @ 8:59AM|#

I get the feeling you're not taking him seriously anymore, thoreau.

|12.7.05 @ 9:49AM|#

Goddammit, warn us when there's a .pdf involved.

When I put my mouse over the link, it says "http://www.nsa.gov/vietnam/releases/relea00012.pdf" in the lower-left corner of my browser. Does yours not?

Experience|12.7.05 @ 9:58AM|#

However, faith can prove it.

Not faith, silly -- FOIAS (the eff stands for "freedom"!!!).

Dave W.|12.7.05 @ 10:00AM|#

Here's my impression of a scientist trying to get a FOIA:
"Godammit, where's my effin' lawyer -- secretary, put that Pfizer grant proposal on hold -- I want to discover some actually useful info for once -- you get that shyster on the line, like now!"

|12.7.05 @ 10:20AM|#

Besides a warning that it's a PDF, there should probably be a warning that the link goes to NSA.gov.

|12.7.05 @ 10:25AM|#

Of course, Thoreau. No, the lack of evidence is where the proof lies.

|12.7.05 @ 10:35AM|#

Dave W.,

Do gentlemen give into unwarranted mocking?

Dave W.|12.7.05 @ 11:40AM|#

Hak:
There's clever mocking that teaches people stuf, even ppl who think they are too smart to learn anything once they do enuf collidge. Then there's what you do. Like Brother Lou said: watch me know!

Dave W.|12.7.05 @ 11:40AM|#

Hak:
There's clever mocking that teaches people stuf, even ppl who think they are too smart to learn anything once they do enuf collidge. Then there's what you do. Like Brother Lou said: watch me now!

|12.7.05 @ 11:49AM|#

FREEDOM!

|12.7.05 @ 12:07PM|#

You know, I can't help but think that NSA felt is was safe to release this now because we've moved passed lying about being attacked and onto lying about the possibility of being attacked. Much more effective. No messy facts to hide for 40 years.

|12.7.05 @ 2:13PM|#

It's always a good idea to see where the link actually goes on the mouseover before clicking. It's a phishers worst enemy.

|12.7.05 @ 2:40PM|#

Dave W.,

Thoreau has yet to do anything that could remotely be considered clever here. He does borrow heavily from the writings of other posters here though. That you apparently consider picking apart your crackpot ideas to be clever is more of a mark against you than anything.

|12.7.05 @ 2:51PM|#

Howdy, Hakluyt! Dartmouth's women are doing well on the basketball court this fall. Sweet!

|12.7.05 @ 3:47PM|#

Since I don't want to trouble with a PDF I have no idea what really happened at the Gulf of Tonkin, but I'm guessing it was bad, maybe an abuse-of-power thing, and casts our government in a disturbing light. Especially the five-year cover-up part.

Damn government.

|12.7.05 @ 5:11PM|#

Jennifer,
I'll summarize the 50 pages for you:

Johnson lied, people died!