FOIA: Gulf of Tonkin Situation Report No. 4 - 9 August 1964

relea00137.pdf
Gulf of Tonkin Situation Report No. 4
This is a report which details messages bewteen DRV entities regarding their watching US activities. 7 of 8 pages blanked out.
Document date: 1964-08-09
Department: NSA Headquarters, Ft. Meade, MD (DIRNSDA)
Author: SIGINT
Document type: Report
pages: 8

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Archivist's Notes: This report briefly mentions DRV communications, between 7 and 8 August 1964, which infers that US naval vessels are planning some sort of "conspiracy." It is with regard to their monitoring of US vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin. Their message also warns one of their own that the US is watching them. It is possible the DRV wanted to invoke an incident in DRV waters.

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During the 7th of August 1964,
Gulf of Tonkin
North Vietnamese kept a watch on U.S. Naval vessels. The Haiphone Headquarters of the Naval Fleet ordered maintained of a first degree alert as it felt that the enemy was preparing a new 'conspiracy'.

Port Wallut
Head quarter of the U.S. Northern Fleet
Same time as Haiphone alert
Reported the movement of the following:
Three enemy destroyers and and two cruisers over a two hour period.
Enemy aircraft had violated airspace.

August 8th
Two cipher messages passed between unidentified U.S. Naval entities as follows:
"No. 44 the enemy is observing you. Go out from Bai Chai Ha Tu To post 5.
You will be within the area of our Naval power, then fire.
Don't move, when the enemy fires then actively engage him.


This document clearly states that it could be interpreted in 2 ways.
One being that North Vietnamese attempted to 'provoke' an incident
in North Vietnamese waters.
Or two that it was an order to engage U.S. vessels only from within North Vietnamese waters.

I highly recommend that you now follow this report with:

Significant increase on N. Vietnamese Naval Communications
Gulf of Tonkin
June 8th 1964

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 20-3-2008 by antar]

This certainly does sound like the DRV was trying to provoke the US if you accept this report as is. One thing I've noticed in several of these intercepted communications is how they link two messages together. One is clearly about tracking US naval vessels, but the second about provoking an attack it is not definitive that they are referring to the US. The DRV was at war with the South Vietnamese, so it may have referred to them. It is possible they were, but just thought I'd offer that possibility.

Related FOIA Documents:
FOIA: DRV attack on US Ships in Gulf of Tonkin; 2 - 4 August 1964
FOIA: Summary of DRV Naval Communications Revealing Pre-Planned Attacks on USS Maddox