Perry E. Metzger wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/31/politics/31war.html?ex=1288414800&en=e2f5e341687a2ed9&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 - The National Security Agency has kept secret
since 2001 a finding by an agency historian that during the Tonkin
Gulf episode, which helped precipitate the Vietnam War,
N.S.A. officers deliberately distorted critical intelligence to
cover up their mistakes, two people familiar with the historian's
work say.
The historian's conclusion is the first serious accusation that
communications intercepted by the N.S.A., the secretive
eavesdropping and code-breaking agency, were falsified so that they
made it look as if North Vietnam had attacked American destroyers
on Aug. 4, 1964, two days after a previous clash.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/
The National Security Archive
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, 40 Years Later
Flawed Intelligence and the Decision for War in Vietnam
Signals Intercepts, Cited at Time, Prove Only August 2nd Battle, Not
August 4; Purported Second Attack Prompted Congressional Blank Check
for War
Johnson-McNamara Tapes Show Readiness to Escalate, Even on Suspect
Intel; Top Aides Knew of Mistaken Signals, but Welcomed Justification
for Vote
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 132
Edited by John Prados
Posted August 4, 2004
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/tapes.htm
"...Thus the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam went forward based on the
mistaken belief in a second attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. In a certain
sense, because the resolution that passed Congress was used to justify
the U.S. military commitment, the entire Vietnam War can be said to have
been based on a misunderstanding. Just over a month afterward, when
another pair of American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin also thought
they had come under attack, LBJ began to express doubts about the
reality of the August incident. In 1997, in Hanoi, Robert McNamara, in a
conversation with Vietnamese Commander General Vo Nguyen Giap, also
concluded that the August 4, 1964, incident had never occurred. That is
now the general consensus among historians of the Vietnam War."
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