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part of a deliberate and systematic campaign of aggression that the Communist regime in North Vietnam has been waging against its neighbors and the nations joined with them in the collective defence of their freedom.
    Whereas the United States is assisting the peoples of southeast Asia to protect their freedom and has no territorial, military or political ambitions in that area, but desires only that these peoples should be left in peace to work out their own destinies in their own way. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the 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.
    SEC. 2 . The United States regards as vital to its national interest and to world peace the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast Asia. Consonant with the Constitution of the United States and the Charter of the United Nations and in accordance with its obligations under the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, the United States is, therefore, prepared, as the President determines, to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defence of its freedoms.
    SEC. 3 . This resolution shall expire when the President shall determine that the peace world security of the area is reasonably assured by international conditions created by action of the United Nations or otherwise except that it may be terminated earlier by resolution of the Congress.
    Johnson was delighted. Authorising him to 'take all necessary measures' to repel attacks on US forces and to 'prevent further aggression', the Resolution meant that he could take any action he wanted, without further reference to Congress.
    'Like grandma's nightshirt,' Johnson said, 'it covered everything'.
    Long before the war was over, it was discovered that the Gulf of Tonkin incident as portrayed by the administration was a fraud. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings in 1968 established that any North Vietnamese action in the Gulf of Tonkin was far from 'unprovoked'. The
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had been involved in covert action against North Vietnam. It was also established that plans to bomb North Vietnam had been drawn up before the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Architect of the Resolution, National Security Adviser Walt W. Rostow said of the incident, 'We don't know what happened, but it had the desired result'.
    Senator Morse had also known that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was a cynical ploy from the beginning. A lean and humorless teetotaller, he had been a progressive Republican when he arrived in Washington in 1945, but he fell out with the GOP over education and labour relations and switched to the Democrats. Known to oppose his party's policy in Vietnam, he received a phone call on the morning of 6 August, 1964 from an officer in the Pentagon – whose name he would never divulge – telling him that the
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, rather than being an innocent party, had been involved in raids on North Vietnam. He had little influence in the Senate but, with Senator Gruening, voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, while doubters such as George McGovern of South Dakota and John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky were talked around by Senator William Fulbright, who later became a robust opponent of the war.
    In February 1966, Morse introduced an amendment to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This time, other senators expressed their doubts about the sweeping powers the resolution gave the President. Morse managed to prolong the debate for two weeks but, when it came to a vote, only five senators backed him. By then others judged that America was in too deep to back out. With Gruening, Morse backed a bill barring draftees