FOIA: Gulf of Tonkin Situation Report No. 3

relea00133.pdf
Gulf of Tonkin Situation Report No. 3
Brief report of DRV messages and comms following the US Air attacks of 5 August 1964 on DRV Ships. It also mentions the DRV shooting down one of their own planes.
Document date: 1964-08-07
Department: NSA Headquarters, Ft. Meade, MD (DIRNSDA)
Author: SIGINT
Document type: Report
pages: 2


Archivist's Notes: This report follows the US Air attack on DRV ships. It goes on to mention DRV Naval activity was reduced and their comms was with regard to counter measures to reduce further losses via air attacks. It also tells about the DRC towing damaged ships back to port.Messages were also transmitted by the DRV which were typically designed to boost moral i.e. "Organise for victory and destroy the enemy." Air-Ground recognition signals were also given to their fleet following a garbled message which infered that the DRV shot down one of their own aircraft on 5 August 1964.




[edit on 3/17/2008 by JacKatMtn]

Gulf of Tonkin Situation Report no. 3
2 page document.

Again, this report is based on the U.S. listening in to DRV (Vietnamese) communications.

The report is an update, following Situation Report no. 2 and states that DRV Naval activity is still low since the 5 Aug. bombing.

DRV naval cipher messages indicated that they were limiting their communications due to being vulnerable to another air attack.
The messages indicated that vessels remained dispersed and camouflaged, damaged vessels were being towed and there were descriptions of battle activities during the air raids and the disposition of ships in the fleet.

On Aug 6 and 7 the DRV messages were “organize for victory and destroy the enemy” presumably to boost morale.

Air-Ground recognition signals and markings of DRV aircraft were given to Naval units following a garbled message which inferred they had shot down one of its own on 5 Aug.

The August 5th strike on the North Vietnamese PT Boat facilities by the United States was part of Operation Pierce Arrow, which was the response to the attacks on the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

This operation consisted of 64 strike sorties from the Ticonderoga and Constellation aircraft carriers against P-4 Torpedo Boats at the Hon Gai, Loc Chao, Quang Khe, and Ben Thuy bases, as well as an oil storage depot at Vinh.

The United States lost two aircraft to enemy fire, producing the war's first prisoner of war, Ensign Everett Alvarez Jr., while killing the other pilot. 90% of the oil storage depot at Vinh was destroyed, while 25 P-4 Torpedo Boats were also destroyed.

The attack left the North Vietnamese unable to generate much naval activity, so they resorted to coming up with countermeasures to prevent another attack like the August 5th attack.

The messages that were deciphered were limited to the Northern Fleet at Port Wallut. The Southern Fleet at Ben Thuy was left out of the messages and countermeasures. The messages indicated that the Northern Fleet was dispersed, changing anchorage positions, and camouflaged, which shows more of a defensive strategy than offensive.

"Organize for victory and destroy the enemy", as the report and frozen_snowman said, do seem to resemble a form of propaganda to boost morale amongst the North Vietnamese military. The defensive measures show that the North Vietnamese were in no position to defeat anyone, and were merely waiting for an opportunity to strike and do damage. So this would support the assertion that it was just to boost morale.

Recognition signals and DRV aircraft markings were given to naval units after a suspected friendly fire attack on it's own aircraft on August 5th.

[edit on 3/19/08 by NovusOrdoMundi]