What happened in the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964?

U. S. Congress after an alleged attack on two U. S. naval destroyed stationed off the coast of Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution effective launched American full scale involvement in the Vietnam War.

It was a pair of attacks carried out by naval forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) against two American destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. The incident occurred on August 2 and 4, 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin. The outcome of the incident was the passage by Congress of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution