Exhibit 380

Editorial Note (Gulf of Tonkin, 4 August 1964)

Exhibit 380 · Edited document compilation

Editorial Note (Gulf of Tonkin, 4 August 1964)

a review of the action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired 'appear doubtful'.

Editorial note quoting the 28 August 1964 chronology: the Maddox's report that reported contacts appeared doubtful, and the 4:47 p.m. meeting of McNamara, Vance and the JCS that concluded an attack had occurred on the basis of five listed factors.

Source: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, Foreign Relations of the United States 1964-1968, Vol. I, Vietnam 1964, Doc. 276
Date: 4 August 1964 events; published FRUS
Quoted from: FRUS 1964-68 vol. I, Doc. 276, p. 609
Grade: Primary record
Document: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v01/d276
Accessed: 2026-11-09
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit
Note: The Maddox words are the editors' quotation of the 28 Aug 1964 chronology (message 041727Z); pages 608-610.

Cited by

Finding DEF-2.1: Primary record The NSA historian Robert Hanyok concluded in a study published in 2001 that no attack on U.S. destroyers occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin on the night of 4 August 1964, and his study confirms the 2 August 1964 engagement with the Maddox. He wrote that the mishandling of the signals intelligence was "not done in a manner that can be construed as conspiratorial" and that NSA personnel believed the attack had happened.