Taken from What If? Could Tonkin Amendment Have Prevented Vietnam Ground War? by Bill Christofferson:
Senator Gaylord Nelson.
What really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964 remains murky 50 years later, despite a number of books and inquiries into a naval skirmish off the coast of North Vietnam. But it became Lyndon Johnson's justification for widening the war, and Congress quickly gave him the authority he wanted.
An amendment to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, drafted by Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson but never introduced, might have changed history.
President Johnson went on television to say he had ordered retaliation after "renewed hostile actions" against US ships. The American response would be "limited and fitting," he declared. "We still seek no wider war."
The resolution he sent to Congress was simple.... Read More
