<P> There was rampant confusion in Washington, but the incident was seen by the administration as the perfect opportunity to present Congress with "a pre-dated declaration of war" in order to strengthen weakening morale in South Vietnam through reprisal attacks by the U.S. on the North . Even before confirmation of the phantom attack had been received in Washington, President Johnson had decided that an attack could not go unanswered . </P> <P> Just before midnight he appeared on television and announced that retaliatory air strikes were underway against North Vietnamese naval and port facilities . Neither Congress nor the American people learned the whole story about the events in the Gulf of Tonkin until the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1969 . It was on the basis of the administration's assertions that the attacks were "unprovoked aggression" on the part of North Vietnam, that the United States Congress approved the Southeast Asia Resolution (also known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) on August 7 . The law gave the President broad powers to conduct military operations without an actual declaration of war . The resolution passed unanimously in the House of Representatives and was opposed in the Senate by only two members . </P> <P> National Security Council members, including United States Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and General Maxwell Taylor, agreed on November 28 to recommend that Johnson adopt a plan for a two - stage escalation of the bombing of North Vietnam . </P> <P> In February 1965, a U.S. air base at Pleiku, in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam, was attacked twice by the NLF, resulting in the deaths of over a dozen U.S. personnel . These guerrilla attacks prompted the administration to order retaliatory air strikes against North Vietnam . </P>

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