THE TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION-ONE CLEAR MEANING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200260003-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 23, 2004
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 17, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

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Approved For Release 2004/10/13: CIA-RDP88-01350R000iG01000 -3-
'1,U'JI x' I.35IJ)k,N'i'S h,'J.A};, ,by
Anthony Austin. (Lippiacoit:
1evle;ved by
3f1)1W'IN ;Ni A'. C iN
? A million or so Americans
plunked clown $2.25 for a copy of
the Bantam Books edition of
"'The Pentagon Paper:," last
July following the Supreme
Court decision clcarilhg the in-
formation for publication.
It would be interesting .' to
know , how many of them.
managed to wade through the
677 pages to the very end. I
suspect that many gave up after
looking at the photos, turned ("if
by the deadly combination of
New York Times editorial prose
and Pentagon bui'caucratese.
Anthony Austin's hook would
suit these readers: hie is the
assistant editor of The Week In
Review section of the New York
!times, but he has not been
influenced in writing style by
the editorialists, fits account of
the nation's Involvement in
Vietnam is briskly written, and
authoritative. ''Tire n art:alive
format helps a reader fellow the
twists and turns of United States
policy which finally led to an
incumbent president's, being
forced to abandon the Whitt
hIouse.
Austin focuses on the passa E
by Congress of the notorious
Gulf of Tonkin resolution, the
document former President
Lyndon B. Johnson took as his
authority to accelerate the war.
It has all been fuzzed over
now, but the truth is Mr.
Johnson was given ? t h a t
authority and all the protests of
Sen: J. William Fttlbriglit and
other recantcrs will not wash
out the fact.
li'ulbriglit claims today that he
was hoodwinked into leading the
plainly worded, and white Mr.
Johnson was often accused of
being an illiterate Texan during
his term in the White House, he
really can read. '
In case anyone has forgotten,
the Gulf of Tonkin resolution
saiu the foil o wing: "Resolve," by
the Senate and house or Ilep-
re:sentatives of the, ? United
States of America in Congress
assembled, That the Congress,
approves and supports the
determination of the President,
as Con inander in Chief, to 1;d:e
all necessary measures to repel
any armed attack against the
forces 0i the United States and
to prevent further ag-
gression...tile United States is,
therefore, prepared, as the
President determines, to take all
necessary steps including the
use of armed force,, to assist
any member of protocol state of
the Southeast Asia Collective
Defense Treaty reghrringr assist-
ance in defense of its freedom."
That's what the resolution
said, folio: s, and it does not'take
a mental giant to explain its
meaning. The authority was
there-"all necessary measures
to repel any armed attack" and
"all necessary steps including'
the use of armed force'.'--
althougll Sen. F ulbrig lit now
contends that it meant solne-
thing else entirely. That,''s I'm.-
wash.
Austin quotes former' Un-
dersecretary of State Nicholas
Katzenhach as telling Sen.
r ulbeight that the Gulf of
Tonkin resolution was a "func-
tional equivalent" of a declara-
;tion of war, which it was.
? The line now taken by Sen.
Fulhright also is quoted by
Austin. it goes something like
.this: the Gulf of Tonkin reso-
lution was passed by the Senate
or at least Fulhright McGov-
eru, Church, et al) ' thought
they were merely voting for a_
document which was a state-
5 U C . CC.C- I ? --- l 6,t f" ,.s..cie.'i's
ment of national unity and truce talks which closed the
conflict that
resolve requested by the Presi- `Korean War, the
dent for its cautionary effect on was supposed to show the U. S.
line Communist a d v e r s a r y the futility of fighting Asians on
following the attack on the t eir`t ins).
American destroyers in the Gulf Anot erg irony is that Austin's
of 'Ibnkin in Au gust, 196"). if Sen.
Fulbright got that meaning - out
of the words of the- Slnlf of
"ionkin Resolution, it makes one
wonder how he got that degree
front Oxfo, d-
The hero In the Senate in
t'.~ose fateful clays of 11161 as
the waspish Sen. Wayne Morse
of . Oregon, who with Sen.
Gruenirg of. Alaska cast the only
negative votes against the
Tonkin resolution.
Sen. Morse saw dearly what
the resolution was. Odgers did,
too, notably Sen. Frank Church
of Idaho. Pitt Church didn't have
.the sand to stand up against Mr.
Johnson. Morse did. In a long,
biller sp2cch, he reminded his
collc`agUos that a constitutional
principle was involved.
,,It is dangerous to give to any
president an unchecked power,
after the passage of a joint
resolution; to make war," Morse
said. "I . believe that future
generations will look with dis-
may Upon a Congress which is
now about ? to make such a
historic mistake."
The payment Morse received
for his prescience was defeat at
the polls; Fulbright and Church
and the others were rc-elected.
What a commentary on the in-
telligence of voters. A man who
saw unerringly into the future
and had the courage to stand by
his analysis was sent back to his
Maryland cattle farn]?by voters.
That is another irony of tike
Vietnam War periol, one of
many. (My. own favorite is that
the destroyer C.. Turner Joy, one
of two attacked In 'the Gulf of
'Tonkin, was nan]ed ailer the
tough Navy admiral who stood
tip to the Conlmt.lnists In the
book, a lucid presentation of the
facts before, dining and after
the Gulf of Tonkin incident, will
doubtlessly have a miniscule
sale compared to 'the almost
unrdadablc "PentagonPapers."
'That's too bad, too. For
Austin's central point is that
Vietnam occurred because of an
erosion of congressional
authority, largely self-imposed,
and a dangerous concnhrinlltz.Ilt
4?.'
growl), of presidcn lit power in
malting hh