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On August 2, 1964, a group of North Vietnamese patrol boats encountered the destroyer "USS Maddox" in the Gulf of Tonkin and launched torpedoes after the Maddox had opened fire. Two days later, the Maddox and the "C. Turner Joy" which had been sent to support it, reported being under attack again (an assertion that later would turn out to be false). Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and his military advisers apparently didn't question the existence of a second attack despite the lack of evidence and consequently Johnson authorized retaliatory air strikes against torpedo boat bases and oil storage facilities in North Vietnam. In addition, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution almost unanimously passed legislation enabling the president to take "all necessary measures to repel any armed attacks against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression". Johnson did not seek to escalate the war at a time of political instability in South Vietnam and therefore no additional attacks on North Vietnamese targets were ordered. He neither responded to an attack on the U.S. air base in Bien Hoa on November 1 with reprisals nor he retaliated when the NLF bombed a U.S. officer's billet in Saigon on Christmas Eve. But at the beginning of 1965 most administration officials, in view of an impending collapse in South Vietnam, agreed that a continuation of the present policies would lead to a defeat of the United States. When on February 6, 1965 NLF units attacked a U.S. Army barracks and a nearby helicopter base in Pleiku, killing nine Americans and destroying five aircraft, the U.S. government decided to strike back. President Johnson ordered the implementation of a plan of reprisal strikes which was drawn up by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) called "Flaming Dart". After the NLF had raided another U.S. military installation at Qui Nhon, even more aerial attacks followed. Soon Washington proceeded with initiating "Rolling Thunder", a program of continuing, gradually intensified air raids on North Vietnam. In anticipation of retaliatory attacks for Rolling Thunder, General William C. Westmoreland urged the posting of a small number of American combat troops to protect the air base at Danang. Not aware that this would violate an unwritten rule the American Indochina policy so far had kept to Johnson approved his request and on March 8 two battalions of Marines landed near the city. Shortly after the administration decided on a deployment of some 40,000 additional U.S. ground combat forces in Vietnam besides the maintenance of the bombing campaign laying the foundations of a large-scale American involvement in the ground war. Johnson and his government continuously misled their nation about the nature of their troops' mission. It had moved from the original objective of base security to offensive operations due to the militarily and politically worsening situation in South Vietnam and the slow pace of the ARVN buildup. The expansion of war gave rise to criticism among the students, the media, and even Democratic senators advocated a peace settlement. Johnson met increasing criticism by a series of counterinitiatives to defend his policy and by a token offer to participate in peace negotiations.
In South Vietnam, Air Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky becoming the prime minister and General Nguyen Van Thieu commanding the armed forces came into power. It was already the fifth government since the death of Diem. The ARVN had to record a high desertion rate and was on the edge of disintegration leaving the military responsibility to the Americans. The NLF supported by North Vietnamese regular forces inflicted crushing defeats on the ARVN in major battles in the Central Highlands and north of Saigon. Westmoreland and the JCS one more time made demands on Johnson for the provision of additional combat forces to avert defeat. Johnson was seeking for a middle course between a total war that involved the danger of a Chinese intervention and a withdrawal whose domestic consequences he feared. In July of 1965 he authorized the use of B-52s and the intensification of the bombing as well as the immediate deployment of 50,000 troops and of additional forces later as the situation would demand it. By the end of 1965, 180,000 Americans were serving in South Vietnam under the command of General Westmoreland.
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