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Unmasked Aggression. As the U.S. raised its shield, it took pains to assure the world that its actions and responses had all been necessary. McNamara told a press conference that all of the military movements were "appropriate to the provocation." He summed up the air strike simply: "Our objective was to deter the PT-boat fleet from further attacks on our vessels. I believe we have accomplished that." President Johnson pointed out that "the Gulf of Tonkin may be distant, but none can be detached about what has happened there. Aggression—deliberate, willful and systematic aggression—has unmasked its face to the entire world. The world remembers, the world must never forget, that aggression unchallenged is aggression unleashed."
Johnson also issued a pointed warning against further Red interference in Southeast Asia. "To any who may be tempted to support or to widen the present aggression, I say this: There is no threat to any peaceful power from the United States of America. But there can be no peace by aggression and no immunity from reply. That is what is meant by the actions that we took." To help spread that word abroad, Johnson asked Henry Cabot Lodge, former Ambassador to Saigon, to present the U.S. case in allied capitals.
At a hastily called United Nations Security Council meeting, U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson described the U.S. action as a "limited and measured response fitted precisely to the attack that produced it, and the deployment of additional U.S. forces to Southeast Asia is designed to make unmistakably clear that the U.S. cannot be diverted by military attack from its obligations to help its friends establish and protect their independence." Stevenson readily accepted the Soviet Union's rather dispirited demand that the Hanoi government be invited to tell its story to the U.N. Council, on condition that South Viet Nam also would be heard.
Two Dissenters. More than anything, the precise, coolheaded statements that issued last week from U.S. leaders were aimed at assuring an edgy world of America's good faith, and America's determination to use its power only in the defense of itself and its allies. Members of the Congress—debating the resolution approving the President's actions and allowing him the discretion to strike back again if the U.S. is attacked—were concerned about making that same point. The resolution cleared the House with a resounding 416-0 vote after only 40 minutes of debate, but the Senate talked for a full nine hours before approving, 88-2. The only two dissenters were Alaska's Democratic Senator Ernest Gruening and Oregon's irascible Democrat Wayne Morse, both of whom argued that the resolution was unconstitutional because it amounted to a "predated declaration of war power" normally reserved to Congress.
On the other hand, it could be argued that technically Johnson already had all the authority he needed without the resolution—as he had demonstrated so dramatically in the Gulf of Tonkin. The congressional support mainly punctuated the fact that the U.S. was united behind the President. At week's end U.S. forces around the world stood alert. And behind them stood their nation.