Destroyers report attack in the Gulf of Tonkin; no one ever sees an enemy boat

Two nights earlier, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats had genuinely attacked the USS Maddox, and jets from the Ticonderoga had driven them off. On August 4, 1964, Maddox and the USS Turner Joy were back on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin when rough seas produced confusing radar, sonar, and radio readings that both crews took for a second attack. Turner Joy fired roughly 220 five-inch shells over two and a half hours at targets no one ever laid eyes on. Within days, President Lyndon Johnson used the incident to push the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution through Congress…