• DOI:10.1177/0957926591002003002
• Corpus ID: 144436208

Revisiting the Gulf of Tonkin Crisis: An Analysis of the Private Communication of President Johnson and his Advisers

@article{Ball1991RevisitingTG,
  title={Revisiting the Gulf of Tonkin Crisis: An Analysis of the Private Communication of President Johnson and his Advisers},
  author={Moya Ann Ball},
  journal={Discourse \& Society},
  year={1991},
  volume={2},
  pages={281 - 296}
}

• M. Ball
• Published 1 July 1991
• Political Science
• Discourse & Society

This essay explains how the rhetorical response of President Johnson and his advisers to the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964 provides a paradigm case of how a confusing set of events can be given interpretation and structure by means of dramatizing communication. Although the Tonkin events were largely unsubstantiated, narratives were shared in which a hostile enemy had deliberately attacked American vessels on routine patrols. Consequently, American prestige and power were being tested before the world. The confusing events, therefore, were lined up into a more familiar story which then became the justification for further action. The dramatizations swept through private decision-making groups and into the legislative and administrative branches of government resulting in the passage of a congressional resolution. This resolution was the legal weapon needed to expand greatly American involvement in the Vietnam War.