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Spy
agency faked key Vietnam War data
By Francis Harris
(Filed: 01/November/2005)
One
of
America
's spy agencies faked key intelligence used to justify its
intervention in the Vietnam War, it was disclosed yesterday.
But the revelation was kept secret by the National Security
Agency, partly because of fears that it would boost criticism
of the intelligence services over the war in
Iraq
.
According
to material uncovered by the NSA's own historian, Robert
Hanyok, middle-ranking officers altered material relating to
the
Gulf
of
Tonkin
incident.
Two
US
destroyers, Maddox and Turner Joy, were attacked by North
Vietnamese craft in the gulf on Aug 2 1964.
Two
days later, amid bad weather and considerable confusion in the
US
chain of command, Maddox reported that she had been fired on a
second time.
Although
its commander soon cast doubt on the reports, signals
intelligence reported that the North Vietnamese admitted
"we sacrificed two ships".
In
revenge President Lyndon Johnson ordered air raids against
North Vietnamese naval facilities and Congress authorised
"all necessary steps including the use of armed
force" to defend South Vietnam.
But
Mr Hanyok found that timings on key intelligence intercepts
had been changed and the "two ships" probably
referred to the loss of two sailors in the first attack.
He
blamed middle-ranking staff who realised the NSA's mistakes
almost immediately but covered them up, not for political
reasons, but to hide the original mistakes.
At
the time, senior administration officials cited the faked
paperwork in testimony before Congress.
It
has even been suggested that President Johnson was so keen to
deploy troops that he fabricated the whole episode. More than
58,000 Americans and a million Vietnamese died in the ensuing
conflict.
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