by our state department as north vietnamese attacked the uss maddox, a destroyer operating in the tonkin 35 miles off the north vietnamese coast. >> this was not an unprovoked attack. there had been these covert actions against north vietnamese directed by the united states, and the north vietnamese were responding to that on august 2nd. >> this is a special report from cbs news in washington. today just past the midday point, unofficial sources started to report additional naval combat action in the same tonkin gulf. >> now i would like to review briefly in chronological order, the unprovoked attacks that took place today, august 4th. >> we know now for sure the second tonkin gulf incident didn't happen. but the johnson administration pretty much dismissed evidence indicating that an attack actually hadn't taken place. >> there was this acute political pressure from the right wing to be strong, stand up to communist aggression. >> certainly, i think a more prudent administration that wasn't looking for a pretext to flex some american muscle would have stepped back and said, let's determ

that is conducted by navy fighters stationed here in the tonkin gulf. air force fighters largely from thailand based in the south and also a small number of air force b-52s. lyndon johnson's air war against the north is named operation rolling thunder. where does that come from? you guys have probably some the -- sung the hymn, "how great thou art." the idea that the thunder will ultimately roll from the dnc north until it threatens the cities of hanoi and others. richard nixon's campaigned against the north is codenamed linebacker. why? well, nixon loved football, he played in college. linebacker is a response to the north vietnamese easter offensive in march 1972. what is the key player on a football team that will play defense? nixon says it is the linebacker. so his operations are going to be called linebacker 1 and 2. it all takes place in 1972. million bombs dropped on north vietnam to the course of 1965-1972. because so much has been made about the ability of the air war to win the war, i'm going to focus the remainder of my remarks on that aspec