Mark Moyar

Up until this time, they've sent smaller forces recruiting the South.

So their plan is... I'm so sorry to interrupt.

Yes, well, it is a complicated situation.

So there are two reported attacks

And one of those attacks clearly took place because there were bullet fragments found on the American ships.

The second one is still kind of a mystery.

The Americans at the time, though, did think there was a second attack based on communications intercepts.

Now, some of those intercepts may be referred to the first one.

Now, what is misleading and I think maybe what feeds into conspiracy theories is.

McNamara deliberately deceives Congress about what's going on.

He says this was an unprovoked attack.

Now we know, and this was not known at the time, but Tom U.S.

is actually conducting covert operations against North Vietnam and probably has something to do with the fact that they attack the American military.

And so McNamara, he comes out as one of the most disreputable people out of all of this, I think.

And this is a case where he misled the American people.

Do we know why he did it?

I think he just felt that it might get a little too messy if people knew that there was some gray areas in here, that maybe this was not purely unprovoked aggression.

And again, that also wouldn't probably look great with the election coming up.

But we do know Lyndon Johnson and McNamara, they are already talking about bombing North Vietnam in 1965, even when publicly they're trying to claim that they're not

going to send American boys.