Chapter 1270 – The Tokyo Bay Incident

The Tokyo Bay patrol program was worthless in the eyes of some, most of the South Vietnamese operatives sent to North Vietnam were either captured or killed, and the attacks at sea were irrelevant.

It was a waste of fuel for the U.S. Navy to protect such a group of South Vietnamese agents, but soon the Pentagon would prove that the patrol program was useful, just not necessarily to everyone’s liking.

Several South Vietnamese patrol boats attacked two North Vietnamese islands in Tokyo Bay that were believed to support infiltration to the south. Early the next morning, the U.S. destroyer USS Maddox, on a De Soto patrol, arrived in Tokyo Bay a short distance from the islands.

At 3:40 p.m., Maddox reported several fast gunboats approaching her, and a few minutes later she was attacked by torpedoes and automatic weapons. There were no casualties aboard the Maddox and she suffered no damage.

That the Maddox was attacked is beyond question: the crew removed shrapnel from North Vietnamese shells from the deck and sent the shrapnel to the Pentagon to confirm that the attack had indeed taken place.

The United States today is not the same, in every way, as it was a half-century ago with the USS Maine, and it doesn’t need to sacrifice a battleship to accomplish its goals.

At the time of the incident, the Maddox was anchored in the open sea, more than twenty-five miles off the coast of North Vietnam, which had only theoretical sea power, and an attack on the world’s number one navy was intolerable. The entire United States was abuzz with the attack on a U.S. Navy warship on the high seas, a provocation to American dignity.

South Vietnamese Ambassador Maxwell Taylor opposed the decision to downplay the incident. In a late-night cable to the State Department, he stated that if we did not respond to an unprovoked attack on a U.S. destroyer on the high seas, it would be seen as “a sign that the U.S. is afraid of direct confrontation with the North Vietnamese.”

The whole world was abuzz, and Britain was abuzz before the U.S. The British newspapers were shocked, with sensationalized headlines that expressed the idea that I don’t get it, but I’m shocked.

The Secretary of the Cabinet, who was in a good mood, finished his day’s work in high spirits and went home in a hurry to show his loyalty to the President.

“Such a good boy today.” Pamela Mountbatten saw her husband enter and drifted toward him with the remote control to turn off the television.

“When have I not been good?” Alan Wilson hugged his wife’s body and said in a tone of voice that no one was more devoted to his wife than he was, “A good relationship with the press will help both your career and mine.”

“You think a destroyer without even a single casualty is worth causing a major war?” Just because Pamela Mountbatten operated on her husband’s words didn’t mean she agreed with the man.

“Depending on who it’s against. Not necessarily against the United States. Aren’t they the world’s dominant power?” Alan Wilson sat down together holding his wife’s hand, overjoyed, “The Americans have something to do, and that’s a good thing for most countries, including Britain.”

“So what are you going to do?” Pamela Mountbatten inquired with a frown, with the proximity of South Vietnam to Malaya, she really didn’t want the situation to go the way it did from her husband’s mouth.

“Call for peace, of course. We need to emphasize the importance of Europe and persuade the United States not to start the war lightly.” Alan Wilson, with the tone of a pacifist, said decisively, “Isn’t it the majesty of the world’s hegemony, which isn’t actually particularly important as long as the bottom line is flexible enough.”

The more you don’t want to do something, the more you have to keep emphasizing that you want to do it, very basic reasoning, does British persuasion work? That, of course, is not useful at all, the Korean War Britain has just begun to persuade, the United States is still unhesitatingly killed into the Korean Peninsula, my Great Britain at this time to maintain peace, the role of the role of the infinite equivalent of the effect of the Hun Tuo Da Sheng.

The Tokyo Bay incident seems to have been brought forward a bit, and I wonder if it would have affected the sinking of the American aircraft carrier by the North Vietnamese, which would have been a shame. After all, it was the only carrier sunk after the war, and Allen Wilson still hoped that the laurels would go to the hard-working and brave Vietnamese people.

Armstrong, the British ambassador to the United States, was then practicing the instructions at home to save the peace to the best of his ability, and approached U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk to lay out Britain’s views on the matter. The official British attitude, like that of the Korean War, was that North Vietnam was not worth the trouble.

“Dear Secretary of State, war is ultimately terrible. Britain is worried about the way the situation is developing.” Armstrong made no secret of Britain’s concern.

“Mr. Ambassador, I also very much understand your concerns as well as Britain’s on this matter, but I can’t promise anything.” Dean Lasker was a very personable man, taking time out of his day to receive the British ambassador at a time like this, but that personability couldn’t change anything, and it was too late to say anything now.

“There was no damage to the American warship, not even a single casualty. In fact, it could be considered a scuffle.” Armstrong was still on a mission, and that mission was for the United States to make a big deal out of it, to treat the attack as if it had never happened.

The implication is that even if the attack was real, there was no loss on the part of the United States. This view is very standoffish, and now even American public opinion knows that the American warship was attacked on the high seas.

How can Dean Lasker pretend that nothing happened, this year is an election year, now is the time of the election of the two parties, if the United States did not say anything, it will be seized by the Republican Party to do something. Not to mention within the US, even the Brits know about this now, and the US is making a big deal out of it?

The Pentagon claims that the Maddox cabled that an attack from some unidentified ships appeared to be imminent. The Maddox’s information came from extremely classified reports from the National Security Agency, which had intercepted various orders from the North Vietnamese. An hour later, the Maddox telegraphed that it had established radar contact with three unidentified ships.

Dark clouds and stormy winds added to the night and visibility was extremely poor. For hours afterward, Tokyo Bay was in chaos.

The Maddox and Turner Joy reported encountering more than two dozen torpedoes, and they saw the wake of torpedoes, lights in the aft compartments of enemy ships, bright lights from flashlights and automatic weapons fire, and also received radar and sonar waves.

At this time the Pentagon was engaged in a lively discussion of how to give a head start to North Vietnam, which had flouted American majesty, and Armstrong, disappointed, said goodbye to Dean Lasker and returned to the embassy to inform London that American belligerence was making persuasion thorny.

“That’s a shame.” In the Cabinet Secretary’s office, Allen Wilson cocked his head and clipped the microphone, beaming, “We still can’t give up on trying to save the peace, Dixon, wait for me to express my condolences and thanks to Ambassador Armstrong, he’s done all he can.”

Putting down the microphone, Alan Wilson stood up and circled around his desk, lighting his cigar and taking a long, rhyming puff.