Answer: Alleged attack on US Navy ships by North Vietnamese torpedo boats.
Detail:
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was a measure passed by US Congress that allowed the US President to make military actions, like increase troops, without formal declaration of war. It led to huge escalation of US involvement in the Vietnam War. The resolution was passed by Congress in August, 1964, after alleged attacks on two US naval ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. The key wording in the resolution said:
- <em>Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.</em>
That resolution served as a blank check for President Johnson to send troops to whatever extent he deemed necessary in pursuance of the war. Between 1964 and the end of Johnson's presidency in 1969, US troop levels in Vietnam increased from around 20,000 to over 500,000.
Democrats had been losing elections in what had long been considered solid Democratic territory in the South. Lyndon B. Johnson, a Democrat who took up the presidency after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, had become associated in the minds of voters with the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement aimed to give black Americans equality. This did not sit well with white voters in the South. In the 1964 presidential election, the Republican candidate, Barry Goldwater, won the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Nevertheless, Johnson prevailed and won the election. But it showed conservative Democrats were willing to shift to the Republican party if they felt it more closely aligned with their views.
C claming for france and the land around the mississsppi river
