Something smells about the captured American Navy vessel?
Where is the radio contact?
An American boat, with 10 US sailors aboard, is disabled off the coast of Farsi Island, the site of an Iranian naval base. The Americans surrender to the Iranian Navy forces.
Then, in less than 24 hours, they are released by the Iranians.
My conspiratorial mind wonders what they were doing there? Did Obama know about the exercises around Farsi Island?
Since we know that the Israelis, and many right-wingers in this country, were very much against the nuclear deal recently completed between the Administration and the Iranian government, is it possible that it was a "created" incident, created in hopes of creating a crisis between the two governments?
Just thinking out loud, but something smells about this little "incident", in my opinion.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Evidence was still being sought on the night of August 4 when Johnson gave his address to the American public on the incident. Messages recorded that day indicate that neither President Johnson nor Secretary McNamara was certain of an attack.[30]
Various news sources, including Time, Life and Newsweek, ran articles throughout August on the Tonkin Gulf incident.[31] Time reported: "Through the darkness, from the West and south...intruders boldly sped...at least six of them... they opened fire on the destroyers with automatic weapons, this time from as close as 2,000 yards."[32] Time stated that there was "no doubt in Sharp's mind that the US would now have to answer this attack", and that there was no debate or confusion within the administration regarding the incident.[32]
The use of the set of incidents as a pretext for escalation of US involvement follows the issuance of public threats against North Vietnam, as well as calls from American politicians in favor of escalating the war.[33] On May 4, 1964, William Bundy called for the US to "drive the communists out of South Vietnam", even if that meant attacking both North Vietnam and communist China.[33] Even so, the Johnson administration in the second half of 1964 focused on convincing the American public that there was no chance of war between North Vietnam and the US.[33]
North Vietnam's General Giap suggested that the DESOTO patrol had been sent into the gulf to provoke North Vietnam into giving an excuse for escalation of the war.[33] Various government officials and men aboard Maddox have suggested similar theories.[33] American politicians and strategists had been planning provocative actions against North Vietnam for some time. George Ball told a British journalist after the war that "at that time...many people...were looking for any excuse to initiate bombing".[33]
According to Raymond McGovern, a retired CIA officer, CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s, chairman of the National Intelligence Estimates, the CIA, "not to mention President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy all knew full well that the evidence of any armed attack on the evening of Aug. 4, 1964, the so-called "second" Tonkin Gulf incident, was highly dubious....During the summer of 1964, President Johnson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were eager to widen the war in Vietnam. They stepped up sabotage and hit-and-run attacks on the coast of North Vietnam". Maddox, carrying electronic spying gear, was to collect signals intelligence from the North Vietnamese coast, and the coastal attacks were seen as a helpful way to get the North Vietnamese to turn on their coastal radars. For this purpose, it was authorized to approach the coast as close as eight miles and the offshore islands as close as four; the latter had already been subjected to shelling from the sea.[34]
In his book, Body of Secrets, James Bamford, who spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst, writes, that the primary purpose of the Maddox "was to act as a seagoing provocateur—to poke its sharp gray bow and the American flag as close to the belly of North Vietnam as possible, in effect shoving its five-inch cannons up the nose of the communist navy ..... The Maddox ' mission was made even more provocative by being timed to coincide with commando raids, creating the impression that the Maddox was directing those missions ..."[35] Thus, the North Vietnamese had every reason to believe that the Maddox was involved in these actions.[citation needed]
Provocative action against North Vietnam was considered after the August 1964 incidents John McNaughton suggested in September 1964, that the US prepare to take actions to provoke a North Vietnamese military reaction, including plans to use DESOTO patrols North. William Bundy's paper dated September 8, 1964, suggested more DESOTO patrols as well.[33]
--more--
Wikipedia: Gulf of Tonkin incident
I don't know...
never worked in the desert much, other than a couple of deployments to Yuma AZ, but spent a year on a carrier in the Med.
Had a radar package once they were working on it when the plane was parked on the elevator. Took a wave that doused the left side of the whole radar package with sea water. That was a bit of a mess. 
But salt air, and yes sand and dust, can play hell on circuitry to be sure.
I try not to speculate too much on shit like this. Better to wait and let the facts come out. I'm just glad we got our people back without a lot of additional bloodshed or political wrangling.
