Lyndon B. Johnson

The National Security Agency's 2005–06 Gulf of Tonkin releases made internal intelligence assessments available for scrutiny. Research in that record concluded that the reported second attack on 4 August 1964 had not occurred, weakening the factual basis of the case Johnson presented for escalation. This does not erase the separate 2 August clash. It also leaves distinct questions about intelligence handling, what reached the president and how his administration used uncertain reports; evidence that an attack did not happen is not by itself proof of who knowingly misrepresented it.