Social Sciences and History / Unit 2 SSH 0135 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The idea
Sample question two asks what the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution did, and the key is that it authorized the president to repel attacks on American forces. In August nineteen sixty-four the destroyer Maddox reported fire from North Vietnamese boats. On August seventh, with two dissenting votes, Congress passed the resolution, and the president signed it on August tenth. Its text authorized all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against United States forces and to prevent further aggression. The anchor's reading is that it gave the president authority to use military force in Vietnam without a declaration of war, and transformed the American role from adviser to combatant.
In practice
To answer, look for the option that names authorization to repel attacks and reject options that name a declaration of war, a treaty, or a troop ceiling. The resolution declared no war; that is why it mattered. The anchor also records that the National Security Agency later revealed the August fourth attack did not occur. Critics sought repeal from nineteen sixty-seven; Congress revoked it in January nineteen seventy-one, with Nixon's assent.
Where people slip
The trap is the phrase declaration of war. The resolution's force came from being something less than a declaration that worked like one. A second trap is the date: it belongs to Johnson in nineteen sixty-four, not Kennedy and not Nixon.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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