NATIONAL ARCHIVES MUSEUM PRESENTS ORIGINAL TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION ON 50TH ANNIVERSARY

NATIONAL ARCHIVES MUSEUM PRESENTS ORIGINAL TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION ON 50TH ANNIVERSARY

RESOLUTION ESCALATED U.S. INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM

Washington, DC. . . Fifty years after the passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, the National Archives Museum presents the original document that gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to escalate U.S. involvement in Vietnam without a declaration of war.

The Resolution, passed by Congress on August 7, 1964, and signed by the President a few days later, will be on display in the “Featured Documents” exhibit in the museum’s East Rotunda Gallery from July 15 through August 7.

The National Archives Museum's "Featured Documents" exhibit is made possible in part by the Foundation for the National Archives [1] through the generous support of Toyota.

By 1964, Vietnam had been torn by international and civil war for decades. U.S. military support for South Vietnam had grown to some 15,000 military advisers, while the North received military and financial aid from China and the Soviet Union.

In a late-night televised address on August 4, 1964, President Johnson announced that he had ordered retaliatory air strikes on the North Vietnamese in response to reports of their attacks earlier on U.S. naval ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. He asked Congress to pass a resolution stressing that “our Government is united in its determination to take all necessary measures in support of freedom and in defense of peace in southeast Asia.”

The resolution passed quickly on August 7, with only two dissenting votes in the Senate. It stated that “Congress approves and supports the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”

The resolution became the subject of great political controversy in the course of the undeclared war that followed. As public resistance to the war grew, Congress eventually repealed the resolution in January 1971. More than 58,000 U.S. military personnel were killed in the war.

Located near displays of the original Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, the featured document exhibit is seen by more than one million visitors each year.

More information about the exhibited records’ history and free access to high resolution images [2] are available through the National Archives website.

The National Archives Museum is located on the National Mall on Constitution Avenue at 9th Street, NW. Metro accessible on Yellow or Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial station. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., daily. Free admission. Additional information on exhibits and programs at the National Archives Museum can be found online [3].

Following the TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION, the museum plans to display:

PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON’S RESIGNATION LETTER to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (August 9, 1974) and PRESIDENT GERALD FORD’S FULL AND UNCONDITIONAL PARDON OF NIXON (September 8, 1974). (August 8 –11)

HOUSE PASSAGE OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS, celebrating its 225th anniversary. The First Congress proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the Constitution, 10 of which were ratified and are now collectively known as the Bill of Rights. (August 12 – September 10)

DOCUMENTS AND AN ARTIFACT COMMEMORATING THE 1814 BURNING OF WASHINGTON AND ATTACK ON BALTIMORE AND FORT MCHENRY. During the War of 1812, British forces occupied Washington, burning the White House and other government buildings. Just weeks later the Americans held off the British at the Battle of Baltimore including a 25 hour bombardment of Fort McHenry that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words to “The Star Spangled Banner” 200 years ago. (September 11 – November 3)