The news traveled very quickly all the way to the Pentagon, and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara briefed President Lyndon Johnson on the situation.

They demanded retaliation. And only a few days later, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution… which essentially authorized full blown military conflict in Vietnam.

The only problem, of course, is that the supposed August 4th attack in the Gulf of Tonkin never actually happened.

McNamara himself admitted decades later that the attack was made up, and a declassified report from the National Security Agency showed that there weren't even any North Vietnamese patrol boats in the area.

Despite the complete fabrication, however, the US went on to engage in a long and costly war. And the man who headed up the effort was a four star general named William Westmoreland, a career officer who had been described by his Pentagon bosses as "the best we have, without question."

Westmoreland aggressively expanded the war, increasing the number of American troops on the ground by nearly 50x. And he was constantly on TV telling the American public how great the war effort was going and predicted victory by 1967.

At first, everyone believed him. The government still had credibility back then, so few people questioned the commanding general's assurance that the war was going well.