Historical+Background

 When **Joseph** ** Stalin ** died, a more aggressive leader, ** Nikita Khrushchev ** came into power In the U.S.S.R (Britannica). Rather than only rebuilding the U.S.S.R., Khrushchev expanded the reaches of communism to great concern of the U.S. and NATO. **NATO** is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty. Khrushchev started to become more aggressive towards the United States and its allies, Reportedly saying, “We will bury you!” As tensions mounted and Ballistic missiles became more effective and lethal, both the **U.S** and the **U.S.S.R.** wanted to have nuclear missiles within close striking distance to the enemies capital. In 1962, the **United States** was discovered to have nuclear missiles (NPS 1) in launch sites in Turkey, only a small distance from Moscow. In response, the **U.S.S.R.** placed its own immediate response missiles in the newly communist country of Cuba. Known as the //Cuban missile crisis,// the //Cold War// reached an ultimatum point (Black 1). Both superpowers pursued a policy of brinkmanship, and neither was ready to step down and be humiliated. Eventually, however, the U.S.S.R. stepped down, embarrassing Khrushchev as he was portrayed as a coward. Still, however, more countries were joining the Warsaw pact, giving more power to the U.S.S.R. The **Warsaw Pact** was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by many communist states in Eastern Europe. It was established at the USSR's initiative and realized on May 14, 1955 in Warsaw, Poland. One of these countries was North Vietnam. As South Vietnam stood as one of the last southeastern Asian democracies the U.S. found it to be essential that it was not taken over by its militaristic northern neighbor. To allow **President Johnson** to send military support to South Vietnam, the Senate and congress approved a pact to prevent the spread of communism, it was passed unanimously in August 7, 1964 (Willbanks 1).  To gain a justifiable cause to formally engage the **North Vietnamese Army**, the U.S. ran harassment missions off of the coast of North Vietnam (Casey 173). This harassment was technically legal but was aggravating to the **North Vietnamese Army**. These harassments included //DESOTO missions// which were intelligence gathering missions, and patrols in international waters only twelve miles off of the North Vietnamese Coast (Moise 1). This plan worked and three small North Vietnamese warships, known as **PT Boats** approached a medium sized destroyer named the **U.S.S. Maddox**.

The Event