Re Tonkin, for those who are curious, the coverage of it starts at around 18:30 - http://www.pbs.org/video/the-river-styx-january-1964-december-1965-wayhiw/ ht

Re Tonkin, for those who are curious, the coverage of it starts at around 18:30 - http://www.pbs.org/video/the-river-styx-january-1964-december-1965-wayhiw/ http://www.pbs.org/video/the-river-styx-january-1964-decembe... It first mentions that Johnson wanted to escalate so had a congressional resolution drafted for when the time was right, then goes into how the whole incident was started by South Vietnamese boats attacking North Vietnamese islands (at the direction of the US), and then mentions that the events that followed were "one of the most controversial and consequential events in US history". Considering this the third episode of the series and that fact that the first ~20 minutes are spent explaining how Johnson was looking for a reason to escalate in the context of the election, I really don't understand how anyone can portray this as Burns trying to whitewash the incident!