America’s Case of ‘Tonkin Gulfitis’

Dr. Lawrence finds that “Congress had a bad case of ‘Tonkin Gulfitis’…Many legislators, in other words, believed the Senate had made a grievous mistake four years earlier by giving the president a blank check to wage war in Vietnam after American warships came under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin.” He argues that “with the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that the abrupt turn away from activism and idealism in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America amounts to one of the little-noticed tragedies of the Vietnam War.”

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