Season 26, Day 8 - "You Say You Want a Resolution"
It's "Gulf" week, and today's quiz is inspired by the Gulf of Tonkin.
Hi everyone, sorry I’m sending this out late!
Exciting announcement
I will be appearing on Jeopardy! soon! I’ll send out another post when I can give you more information, but I’ll be playing in something called the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament. I know some of you already figured this out, but just to confirm, this is why I decided to pause the newsletter for the month of February. Sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner! I hope no one was worried about me, and thanks again to everyone who checked in.
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin is the northwestern arm of the South China Sea. Named for a region of northern Vietnam during the French colonial period, the Gulf of Tonkin is bordered on the west by Vietnam and on the east by China’s Luichow Peninsula and Hainan Island. Haiphong, Vietnam is its principal port, located about 75 miles of east of Hanoi. The Red River empties into the Gulf, which encompasses Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with over 1,600 limestone islands and islets. In 1881, the Gulf of Tonkin was the site of one of the most catastrophic natural disasters in history, a deadly typhoon (a tropical cyclone in the Northwest Pacific Ocean) that flooded Haiphong and killed an estimated 300,000 people. On August 2, 1964, a U.S. destroyer named the Maddox was approached by three North Vietnamese torpedo boats. When the Maddox fired warning shots, the North Vietnamese boats attacked, and the resulting military engagement became known as the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Two days later, on August 4, bad intelligence led the U.S. to believe a second attack had taken place. Congress then passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized the president to “repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States.” Notably, this gave LBJ the ability to use conventional military force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war. Also known as U.S. Public Law 88-408, The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed unanimously in the House and was only voted against by two Senators: Ernest Gruening (D-AK) and Wayne Morse (D-OR), who held the record for the longest filibuster (22 1/2 hours) until that record was broken by longtime South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond. With public opinion shifting against the war, the Senate voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1970. Three years later, Congress passed the War Powers Act to limit future presidential use of military force absent a formal declaration of war.