1898
The USS Maine was anchored in Havana Harbor in February 1898 when a huge explosion sank the battleship, killing 266 of its 350 crewmen. The Maine had been sent to Cuba to protect American persons and property purportedly endangered by the island country’s struggle for independence from Spain. The conflict had been ongoing since 1895.
William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal had been agitating for military action. Lurid stories about alleged Spanish atrocities in Cuba sold newspapers. Hearst dispatched famed artist Frederic Remington to report. Remington found little to report. “Everything quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. Wish to return,” he cabled to his employer in 1897. Hearst responded, “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
The Maine’s sinking was just what Hearst and other so-called yellow journalists needed. The newspapers relentlessly promoted war: “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!” Three months later, after an official investigation, Congress declared war on Spain. Four months after that, Spain ceded Cuba, along with the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam, to the United States.
The Spanish-American War burnished future-president Teddy Roosevelt’s he-man image. He led the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry to victory in the Battle of San Juan Hill. Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders”were joined in the attack by the 10th (Negro) Cavalry. For some reason the 10th received none of the glory, but its white commander, Captain “Black Jack” Pershing (who later commanded American troops in World War I) was awarded the Silver Star.
(Mark Twain wrote about the slaughter precipitated by U.S. forces in the subsequent war in the Philippines.)
And the USS Maine: there was no attack against the battleship. The explosion was internal, most likely caused by a coal bunker fire.
1964
Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson had been gradually increasing the United States support for France as it tried to disentangle itself from its colonial misadventure in Vietnam. Western powers had promised an election to reunite the country they had temporally divided into North and South Vietnam. The U.S. opposed the election because of the almost certain victory of Ho Chi Minh, the Communist leader of the North who was largely responsible for getting rid of the French, over the dissolute Ngo Dinh Diem in the South. Even the the U.S. orchestrated a coup of the Diem regime it still tried to posture itself largely in the background.
After U.S. patrol boats had shelled North Vietnamese islands on the Gulf of Tonkin, the USS Maddox steamed into the Gulf for support. On August 2, 1964, three North-Vietnamese torpedo boats came out to meet the battleship. The Maddox fired “warning shots” and severely damaged at least one of them. The destroyer Turner Joy arrived to support the Maddox. Meanwhile the U.S. attacked two more North Vietnamese positions. On August 4, the Maddox and Turner Joy reported that twenty-two torpedoes had been fired at them. Lyndon Johnson ordered air strikes against North Vietnam, stating “Aggression by terror against the peaceful villagers of South Vietnam has now been joined by open aggression on the high seas against the United States of America.” The U.S. House unanimously passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7 giving the President authority to prosecute war against North Vietnam. The Senate passed it with two dissenting votes. (Senator Wayne Morse from Oregon cast one of the “No” votes.)
U.S. intelligence officials were selective what information they released. National Security Agency documents declassified in 2005 revealed that “The overwhelming body of reports, if used, would have told the story that no attack had happened.” The Navy says it is now “clear that North Vietnamese naval forces did not attack Maddox and Turner Joy that night.”
President Johnson was privately skeptical about the attacks. He reportedly told a State Department official that “those dumb, stupid sailors were just shooting at flying fish!
2019
In June a Japanese-owned oil tanker and a Norwegian tanker were attacked in the Gulf of Oman between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Japanese-ship owner said the damage was caused by “flying objects.” A U.S. Navy spokesman says it was “limpet” mines attached to the ships bore “a striking resemblance” to similar mines utilized by Iran.
Relations between the United States and Iran have become more tense since the current occupant of the White House unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear agreement and imposed economic sanctions. The U.S. recently deployed an aircraft carrier to the Mideast and has sent additional troops to the tens of thousands already there. For its part, Iran has stepped up its nuclear production.
And so it goes.
