However, later evidence, including declassified documents and recordings between President LBJ and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, revealed that the second attack likely never occurred. It has since been acknowledged that the U.S. government misrepresented or exaggerated the events, effectively staging the incident to justify escalating military involvement in Vietnam. This makes the Gulf of Tonkin incident one of the most well-known examples of a manufactured event leading to war.

I mean, I believe it's in an issue that's never been properly addressed.

What happened with the Gulf of Tonkin incident was that on August 2nd, 1964, the USS Maddox engaged with three Vietnamese torpedo boats. Then the U.S. lied about a second confrontation happening on August 4th, which was just totally made up. Also, we lied about not having fired first in the August 2nd incident. And it was all definitely part of trying to get more directly involved in Vietnam.