FOIA: North Vietnamese Naval Reports Position of USS Craig by Hull Number - 1 March 1964

relea00139.pdf
North Vietnamese Naval Reports Position of USS Craig by Hull Number
This appears to be a teletext message/report of the position of a USS patrol boat.
Document date: 1964-03-01
Department: NSA Headquarters, Ft. Meade, MD (DIRNSDA)
Author: SIGINT VINH
Document type: Report
pages: 1

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Archivist's Notes: This report points out the position of the patrol boat USS Craig by Hull number 885 and its position. Very short.

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[edit on 3/20/2008 by JacKatMtn]

As stated above this is a very short one page report about the North Vietnamese reported sighting of the USS Craig on March second 1964 via the hull number. This was 6 months before the attack on the USS Maddox where they used ground Radar to keep track of the ship.

Analysis:
Since the Hull Number is given it is apparent that they were able to make the sighting by visual rather than radar. It is also speculated from what they discovered later from the USS Maddox reports, they did not recognize the USS Craig at this point to be a hostile entity therefore the need to act upon this report was not met with hostile action on the part of the North Vietnamese.

There is not much more to add to what has already been said. This is a very short communication from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) about identifying the US navy vessel USS Craig by it’s hull number on March 2nd, 1964. I guess the purpose of this document being included with other reports on the DRV is to provide evidence of early tracking of US ships before the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident prompted the US Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave President Johnson authority to use military force to defend allies in the area and ultimately lead to the beginning of the Vietnam War.

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