Irresponsible Actions Quotes
The president had publicly stated that two American ships—Turner Joy and Maddox—had been attacked off the coast of North Vietnam. The ships returned fire an “drove the attackers off”. This incident was the justification of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which authorized the American military to bomb Hanoi and the rest of North Vietnam. The NSA had issued a secret report stating that there was no evidence of any attack at all even though the ships had fired their guns. One theory was that the very sensitive radar the shipps carried had detected a large school of flying fish, many of whom were out of the water at any one time. The President, who had escalated the war to respond to this “attack”, privately gave this explanation.
Sumner was sharp and biting in his criticism of slavery and its supporters. Preston Brooks, a South Carolina Democrats, soon after, sneaked up on Sumner and trapped him in his desk bolted to the floor. Sumner was seriously injured; Brooks, lauded throughout the South.
