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Note: This game, while based in fact, involves a measure of speculation.
The advisers are fictional.
You are Lyndon Johnson. It is 1964, and you have received word that North Vietnamese torpedo boats fired on the USS Maddox in disputed waters about 10 miles off the North Vietnamese coast in the Gulf of Tonkin. No damage was done, but to discourage future attacks you have warned Hanoi and ordered another U.S. destroyer into the Gulf. Now, two days later, the Pentagon is reporting a "deliberate attack" on the Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy in undisputed international waters 65 miles offshore. In response, you have ordered U.S. aircraft to bomb a North Vietnamese oil depot and patrol boat bases. On your desk is a proposal to ask Congress for wide-ranging executive powers to take action in Southeast Asia. While many of your advisers have been pushing for such action, if you submit the proposal to Congress you risk moving down a slippery slope of conflict in Southeast Asia. If you don't, you risk allowing communist North Vietnam to continue to undermine your South Vietnamese ally. What do you do?
Special Adviser
General
Congressional Adviser
Click on an adviser for guidance.
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