The Secret Sentry

by Matthew M. Aid

  102.Memorandum, Lehman to Director of Central Intelligence, CIA Handling of the Soviet Buildup in Cuba, 1 July–16 October 1962, November 14, 1962, p. 1, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP80B01676R001700180076-4, NA, CP; confidential interview. See also Director of Central Intelligence, Report to the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board on Intelligence Community Activities Relating to the Cuban Arms Build-Up: 14 April Through 14 October 1962, December 1962, p. 27, National Security Files: Countries: Cuba, box 61, JFKL, Boston, MA. Quote from SC No. 12160/62-KH, untitled CIA report on the agency’s intelligence collection effort against Cuba, December 1962, p. 5, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP66B00560R000100100176-0, NA, CP; Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office, History of the Strategic Arms Competition: 1945–1972, part 2, March 1981, p. 615, DoD FOIA Reading Room, Pentagon, Washington, DC.

  103. Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 317.

  6: Errors of Fact and Judgment

  1. This argument is forcefully made in William B. Bader, “From Vietnam to Iraq: Pretext and Pre-cedent,” International Herald Tribune, August 27, 2004.

  2. The tragic history of the CIA and the Pentagon’s efforts to insert agents and then commando teams into North Vietnam between 1958 and 1968 is detailed in Sedgwick D. Tourison Jr., Secret Army, Secret War (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995); Kenneth Conboy and Dale Andradé, Spies and Commandos (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000). McNamara quote from W. Thomas Johnson, “Notes of the President’s Meeting with Senator Dirksen and Congressman Ford,” January 30, 1968, p. 8, Tom Johnson’s Notes of Meetings, box 2, file January 30, 1968, LBJL, Austin, TX.

  3. Memorandum, Forrestal to President, Vietnam, December 11, 1963, p. 1, Top Secret, Douglas Pike Collection, Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX; Tourison Jr., Secret Army, Secret War, pp. 73–112; Richard H. Schultz Jr., The Secret War Against Hanoi (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999), pp. 31–40; Conboy and Andradé, Spies and Commandos, pp. 81–100; Robert J. Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds and the Flying Fish: SIGINT and the Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2–4 August 1964,” Cryptologic Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 4–vol. 20, no. 1 (Winter 2000–Spring 2001): p. 8, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release.

  4. NSA OH-17-93, oral history, Interview of Milton S. Zaslow, September 14, 1993, pp. 33–34, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release.

  5. Memorandum, Tordella to Fubini, “[deleted] Operations,” November 23, 1964, p. 1, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 10.

  6. USIB-S-34.1/9, memorandum, Carroll to Chairman, U.S. Intelligence Board, Ad Hoc Committee Report and Recommendations Relating to Disclosure of US SIGINT Successes Against North Vietnam, June 13, 1964, pp. 1–2, DDRS. For an example of the kind of SIGINT NSA was producing at the time about North Vietnam’s growing military involvement in the insurgencies in South Vietnam and Laos, see National Indications Center, memorandum, Denny to Watch Committee, Recent Infiltration of PAVN Personnel into Northern South Vietnam, July 24, 1964, p. 1, DDRS.

  7. Memorandum for the record, Briefing of CIA Subcommittee of House Armed Services Committee— 4 August 1964—9:00 a.m., August 18, 1964, p. 13, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP82R00025R000400160001-4, NA, CP.

  8. For SIGINT on increasing resolve of North Vietnamesenavy, see Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” pp. 9–10; spot report, 2/O/VHN/R03-64, Significant Increase in Activity of North Vietnamese Naval Communications, June 8, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release. For re-sults of OPLAN 34A raids, see Tourison Jr., Secret Army, Secret War, pp. 114–28; Conboy and An-dradé, Spies and Commandos, pp. 101–15; Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 397.

  9. Edwin E. Moïse, Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), p. 51.

  10. Desoto was actually an acronym based on the name of the first destroyer to conduct one of these patrols, the USS DeHaven, with Desoto standing for “DeHaven Special Operations Off Tsing-tao.” CINCPAC, 1964 Command History, pp. 366–67. The author is grateful to Dr. Edwin E. Moïse of Clemson University for making a copy of this document available. See also Edward J. Marolda and Oscar P. Fitzgerald, The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict: From Military Assistance to Combat, 1959–1965 (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1986), p. 393. For the Navy SIGINT detachment on each Desoto destroyer, see Dr. Thomas R. Johnson, American Cryptology During the Cold War, 1945–1989 (Fort Meade, MD: Center for Cryptologic History, 1995), bk. 2, Centralization Wins, 1960–1972, p. 515, NSA FOIA; oral history, Interview with Captain Frederick M. Frick, January 8, 1996, p. 5, Oral History Project, Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.

  11. CINCPAC, 1962 Command History, p. 44, CINCPAC FOIA; CINCPAC, 1963 Command History, pp. 56–57, CINCPAC FOIA; CINCPAC, 1964 Command History, p. 367; “The Gulf of Tonkin Incident,” Cryptolog, February–March 1975: p. 8, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin Release; National Cryptologic School, On Watch: Profiles from the National Security Agency’s Past 40 Years (Fort Meade, MD: NSA/CSS, 1986), p. 43, NSA FOIA; Wyman H. Packard, A Century of U.S. Naval Intelligence (Washington, DC: GPO, 1996), p. 114.

  12. Memorandum for the record, Chronology of Events Relating to DESOTO Patrol Incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin on 2 and 4 August 1964, August 10, 1964, p. 1, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; CINCPAC, 1964 Command History, pp. 367–68; U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, part 2, 1961–1964, 98th Congress, 2nd session, 1984, p. 284.

  13. Description of the Maddox from Jane’s Fighting Ships 1955–1956 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956), p. 412. For the choice of the Maddox based on space on the 0-1 deck, see Don Tuthill, “Tonkin Gulf 1964,” Naval Intelligence Professionals Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 1 (Winter 1988): p. 19.

  14. Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” pp. 6–7; message, DIRNAVSECGRUPAC 012345Z Aug 64, DIRNAVSECGRUPAC to Distribution, “Gulf of Tonkin Desoto Patrol,” August 1, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; Moïse, Tonkin Gulf, p. 53. For Herrick and Ogier being generally briefed about OPLAN 34A, but not told about the dates and times of planned raids, see Moïse, Tonkin Gulf, p. 60; Delmar C. Lang, Lt. Col., USAF, Chronology of Events of 2–5 August 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin, October 14, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release.

  15. Norman Klar, Confessions of a Code Breaker (Tales from Decrypt) (privately published, 2004), p. 163.

  16. Message, DIRNAVSECGRUPAC 180013Z Jul, DIRNAVSECGRUPAC to DIRNSA et al., “Aug Desoto Patrol,” July 18, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; message, DIRNSA P214/0054, 2119122Z, DIRNSA to Distribution List, “Surface Surveillance (Desoto Patrol),” July 21, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; message, DIRNSA P214/0078, 241805Z, DIRNSA to [deleted], July 24, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release. See also Moïse, Tonkin Gulf, pp. 52–55; Klar, Confessions, pp. 163–64; Captain Norman Klar, USN (Ret.), “How to Help Start a War,” Naval History, August 2002, p. 42.

  17. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 410.

  18. Unless otherwise stated, all times given in this chapter are in Gulf of Tonkin time, which the U.S. military referred to as “Golf” or “G” time, and which is eleven hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time in Washington.

  19. For details of the patrol boat attack on North Vietnam, see Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 409. For San Miguel intercept, see message, 310922Z, USN 27 to QUEBEC/QUEBEC, “DRV Naval Communications Reflect ‘Enemy’ Incursion, 31 July 1964,” July 31, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release.

  20. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 411.

  21. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 411. For North Vietnamese radar surveillance of the Maddox, see message, 010546Z, USN 27 to DIST QUEBEC/QUEBEC, “Possible Reflection Desoto Patrol Noted
DRV Naval Communications,” August 1, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release.

  22. Message, 011924Z Aug 64, USN-27 to Dist Quebec/Mike, “DRV Navy May Attack Desoto Patrol,” August 1, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 13.

  23. Message, 012152Z Aug 64, USN-27 to Dist Quebec/Mike, “DRV Navy May Attack Desoto Patrol,” August 1, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release. See also Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, pp. 411–12; Edwin E. Moïse, “Tonkin Gulf: Reconsidered,” in William B. Cogar, New Interpretations in Naval History: Selected Papers from the Eighth Naval History Symposium (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989), pp. 305–06. For intercepts, see “The ‘Phantom Battle’ That Led to War,” U.S. News & World Report, July 23, 1984, p. 59.

  24. CINCPAC, 1964 Command History, p. 368; Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, pp. 412–13.

  25. CINCPAC, 1964 Command History, p. 368; Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 414; Moïse, Tonkin Gulf, pp. 73–74.

  26. Message, DIRNSA B205/981-64, 020302Z Aug 64, DIRNSA to COMSEVENTHFLEET, “Possible Planned Attack by DRV Navy on Desoto Patrol,” August 2, 1964, p. 1, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; memorandum, Hughes to the Secretary, Incident Involving Desoto Patrol, August 2, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” pp. 13–14.

  27. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, pp. 414–15; Moïse, Tonkin Gulf, p. 74.

  28. The torpedo intercept can be found in message, 020635Z Aug 64, USN-414T to USN-27, August 2, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release. For issuing of CRITIC message, see Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2., p. 516; Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 14.

  29. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 414; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, pp. 59, 63; Moïse, “Tonkin Gulf: Reconsidered,” p. 306; Moïse, Tonkin Gulf, pp. 73–76.

  30. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 415; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, p. 59.

  31. National Cryptologic School, On Watch: Profiles from the National Security Agency’s Past 40 Years (Fort Meade, MD: NSA/CSS, 1986), p. 45. NSA FOIA.

  32. Lyndon Baines Johnson, The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963–1969 (New York: Holt, 1971), p. 113; Christopher Andrew, For the President’s Eyes Only (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995), pp. 317–18; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, p. 60; U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, vol. 1, Vietnam 1964 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1992), pp. 590–97.

  33. Transcript of telephone call between Johnson and McNamara, August 3, 1964, 10:20 a.m., tape WH6408.03, Recordings of Telephone Conversations— White House Series, Recordings and Transcripts of Conversations and Meetings, LBJL, Austin, TX; U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations, vol. 1, pp. 598–99, 603; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, pp. 60–61.

  34. Message, DIRNSA 021268Z, DIRNSA to OSCAR VICTOR ALPHA, “SIGINT Readiness Bravo Lantern Established,” August 2, 1964, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 516; Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 18.

  35. Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 19.

  36. Moïse, Tonkin Gulf, p. 75.

  37. Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 20; oral history, Interview with Captain Frederick M. Frick, January 8, 1996, p. 10, Oral History Project, Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.

  38. Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 518. See also U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The Gulf of Tonkin, the 1964 Incidents, 90th Congress, 2nd session, 1968, pp. 67–68; CINCPAC, 1964 Command History, p. 369; Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 423; Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed., vol. 5, p. 325; Anthony Austin, The President’s War (New York: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1971), p. 277.

  39. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, pp. 423–24; Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed., vol. 5, p. 325; Moïse, “Tonkin Gulf: Reconsidered,” p. 308.

  40. Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 518; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, p. 61.

  41. U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The Gulf of Tonkin, the 1964 Incidents, 90th Congress, 2nd session, 1968, pp. 33, 40.

  42. National Cryptologic School, On Watch, p. 46.

  43. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 426; National Cryptologic School, On Watch, pp. 46–47.

  44. Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 518; Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 22.

  45. U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The Gulf of Tonkin, the 1964 Incidents, 90th Congress, 2nd session, 1968, pp. 34–35; Moïse, Tonkin Gulf, p. 113; Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, pp. 426–27; Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed., vol. 5, p. 325; John Galloway, The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1972), pp. 290–91.

  46. Over the next three hours (seven forty-one to ten forty p.m.), three separate surface contacts were tracked by the radar operators of the Maddox and the Turner Joy. Herrick concluded that the “skunks” had to be North Vietnamese torpedo boats, since the contacts were moving at speeds in excess of thirty knots.

  47. Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 520; Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 437; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, p. 61; Moïse, “Tonkin Gulf: Reconsidered,” p. 308.

  48. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 437.

  49. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 434; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, pp. 62–63.

  50. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, pp. 437–40; Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed., vol. 5, p. 326; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, p. 63.

  51. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 440; Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed., vol. 5, p. 327; U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, part 2, 1961–1964, 98th Congress, 2nd session, 1984, pp. 290–91.

  52. National Cryptologic School, On Watch, p. 49.

  53. “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, pp. 62–63; National Cryptologic School, On Watch, p. 48; U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, part 2, 1961–1964, 98th Congress, 2nd session, 1984, pp. 291–92.

  54. U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, part 2, 1961–1964, 98th Congress, 2nd session, 1984, p. 292; Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed., vol. 5, p. 327.

  55. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 441; Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed., vol. 5, p. 327; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, p. 63.

  56. U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, vol. 1, Vietnam 1964 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1992), p. 609; U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, part 2, 1961– 1964, 98th Congress, 2nd session, 1984, p. 292.

  57. Electrical report, 2/O/VHN/T10-64, DIRNSA to OSCAR/VICTOR ALPHA, DRV Naval Entity Reports Losses and Claims Two Enemy Aircraft Shot Down, August 4, 1964, 2242G, November 2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 25.

  58. Moïse, “Tonkin Gulf: Reconsidered,” p. 313.

  59. Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 520.

  60. Moïse, Tonkin Gulf, p. 197.

  61. Oral history, Interview with Dr. Ray S. Cline, May 31, 1983, p. 33, LBJL, Austin, TX.

  62. Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 32.

  63. Confidential interviews.

  64. Electrical report, 2/O/VHN/T10-64, DIRNSA to OSCAR/VICTOR ALPHA, DRV Naval Entity Reports Losses and Claims Two Enemy Aircraft Shot Down, August 4, 1964, 2242G, November
2005 NSA Gulf of Tonkin document release; Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 33.

  65. Hanyok, “Skunks, Bogies,” p. 34.

  66. Ibid., pp. 34–35.

  67. U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, part 2, 1961–1964, 98th Congress, 2nd session, 1984, p. 292; “The ‘Phantom Battle,’ ” U.S. News & World Report, p. 63.

  68. Transcript of conversation between Sharp and Burchinal, 5:23 PM EDT 4 August 1964, in Gulf of Tonkin Transcripts, pp. 36–37, Document No. 751, DoD FOIA Reading Room, Pentagon, Washington, DC. See also Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, pp. 441–42; Pentagon Papers, Gravel ed., vol. 5, p. 327; U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, part 2, 1961–1964, 98th Congress, 2nd session, 1984, pp. 292, n42, 295–96.

  69. Marolda and Fitzgerald, United States Navy, p. 442.

  70. Transcript of conversation between Sharp and Burchinal, 5:39 PM EDT 4 August 1964, in Gulf of Tonkin Transcripts, pp. 41–42, Document No. 751, DoD FOIA Reading Room, Pentagon, Washington, DC.