---
title: President Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin 'Midnight Address'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gulf-of-tonkin-address-1964/
description: President Johnson at the podium for his late-night televised address of 4 August 1964, telling Americans that North Vietnamese boats had attacked U.S.…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![President Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin 'Midnight Address'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gulf-of-tonkin-address-1964.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gulf-of-tonkin-address-1964.jpg)

# President Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin 'Midnight Address'

President Johnson at the podium for his late-night televised address of 4 August 1964, telling Americans that North Vietnamese boats had attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin for a second time and announcing retaliatory air strikes. Three days later Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The second attack did not take place, and the intercepts cited as proof had been selected and presented as confirmation.

- **Date:** August 4, 1964
- **Period:** [Cold War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=cold-war)
- **Made by:** U.S. government (President Lyndon B. Johnson)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Broadcast](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=broadcast)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Johnson Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=johnson-administration)
- **Leader:** [Lyndon B. Johnson](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=lyndon-b-johnson)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information)
- **Event:** [Vietnam War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=vietnam-war)
- **Techniques:** [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Lyndon_B._Johnson's_%22Midnight_Address%22_on_the_2nd_Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident_in_Vietnam.jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (U.S. government work) White House Photo Office, LBJ Presidential Library (NARA).

## Text on the object

Original (Multiple) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
...OF THE UNITED STATES [visible arc of the Presidential Seal on the front of the lectern] / ...UNUM [fragment of the eagle's beak banner, the rest hidden behind the eagle's head]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
The visible 'UNUM' is part of the Seal's Latin motto banner (E Pluribus Unum, 'Out of many, one'); only 'one' is legible here. The rim text is already English.
```

This is the fixed Seal of the President of the United States affixed to the lectern, not a message written for this speech. Only its lower-left arc and part of the eagle's beak banner are lit/in frame; the seal's top ('SEAL OF THE PRESIDENT') is in shadow or outside the crop and was not read. No other text (e.g. on the flag, microphones, or wall) is visible.

[← Laissez-Passer of the People's Republic of the Congo, Stanleyville (1964)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/stanleyville-laissez-passer-lumumba-1964/) [Peace, Little Girl ("Daisy") →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/daisy-ad-1964/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) (Jun 12, 1880 · Card stacking)
- [Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) (May 7, 1898 · Card stacking)
- ["A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition" (commercial stereograph, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sacrifice-to-aguinaldos-ambition-1899/) (1899 · Card stacking, Name-calling). Content note: Photograph of two dead Filipino soldiers.
- ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating)
- ["Kill Every One Over Ten" (New York Evening Journal, 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-every-one-over-ten-1902/) (May 5, 1902 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Blindfolded Filipino children before a firing squad.