The Incident
Daniel Ellsberg, who was on duty in the Pentagon the night of August 4 receiving messages from the ship, reported that the ship was on a secret electronic warfare support measures mission (codenamed DESOTO) near Northern Vietnamese territorial waters. On July 31, 1964, USS Maddox (DD-731) had begun its intelligence collection mission in the gulf. Captain George Stephen Morrison (father of Doors singer Jim Morrison) was in command of local American forces from his flagship USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31). The Maddox was under orders not to approach closer than eight miles (13 km) from the North's coast and four miles (6 km) from Hon Nieu island. When the SOG commando raid was being carried out against Hon Nieu, the ship was 120 miles (190 km) away from the attacked area.
Read more about this topic: Gulf Of Tonkin Incident
Famous quotes containing the word incident:
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“That was the curious incident.””
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“I teazed him with fanciful apprehensions of unhappiness. A moth having fluttered round the candle, and burnt itself, he laid hold of this little incident to admonish me; saying, with a sly look, and in a solemn but quiet tone, “That creature was its own tormentor, and I believe its name was BOSWELL.””
—James Boswell (1740–1795)