James Fallows gives 1964 Senate a pass on Tonkin Gulf

Atlantic Monthly writer James Fallows, on the mag’s blog, had a contest today for stupidest bipartisan policy clusterfuck of the past 50 years.

BUT, he excluded the U.S.Senate’s 88-2 vote for the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964.

Why?

The US Senate's 88-2 vote in favor of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964 doesn’t count: they didn't know what lay ahead.

To which, I call bullshit.

Here’s what I e-mailed him:

I disagree with Fallows ruling out Tonkin Gulf from consideration.

The Senate should have known, whether it actually did or not, about both the stupidity involved, and the 2,000 years of Vietnamese-Chinese history (illustrated again in 1979) that showed just how ridiculous the "domino theory" was.

Hell, if Senators would have read the Geneva Accords that we refused to sign in 1954, it was clear Ho was a nationalist as much as a communist.

So, sorry, Tonkin does count. And, as Vietnam affected the 2004 presidential election, and Swift Boating entered our political lexicon, it should have been part of your contest