> A lot of other people would cite the Gulf of Tonkin as an example too, but that's something I know less about so I'll leave it to someone else. The Gulf of T

> A lot of other people would cite the Gulf of Tonkin as an example too, but that's something I know less about so I'll leave it to someone else. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was explained to the American public at the time as pair of attacks on two separate nights against the US Navy by the North Vietnamese. This was used as the casus belli for the Vietnam War; in response to the two attacks congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which authorized LBJ to start a war (without formally declaring a war...) The first attack probably did happen, however in 2003 Robert McNamara (who had been the US Secretary of Defense at the time of the incident) admitted the second attack never happened. Straight from the horse's mouth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HODxnUrFX6k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HODxnUrFX6k