Deja Vu

NPR had a story this morning about some of the Johnson tapes and Vietnam. On the tape, Johnson is talking with SOD McNamara about getting a resolution from Congress for authority to respond to supposed attacks to US ships in the Gulk of Tonkin. Johnson complained about Hubert Humphrey giving out too much information in TV interviews about military operations. Basically, Humphrey said that US ships were patrolling areas in the Gulf that the Administration had previously stated they were not. Johnson wanted the perception to be given that the US was in no way the aggressor.

As we know, there was some sort of incident in the Gulf, in which our government alleged that the Vietnamese launched an unprovoked attacked on our ships. According to the NPR story, Johnson pressured the military to provide him with solid evidence about what had taken place, so as to be able to pressure the Congress to give him the "blank-check" authorization he wanted to conduct military operations agains the Viet Cong. Although the military at the time had conflicting reports about precisely had happened in the Gulf, they ultimately caved in to Johnson's demands and provided intelligence that made a convicing case that Vietnam had initiated hostilities.

The story goes on to discuss the congressional vote for the resolution giving Johnson a free hand in Vietnam. By an 88-2 vote, they gave the president, in the words of Bob McNamara, a "blank-check." The story then reflects on how several Senators later confessed that, had they known that the Gulf incident was not what they had been led to believe, they would not have voted for the resolution in the first place.

Sound familiar?