(Aug. 5, 1964) Resolution by the U.S. Congress authorizing Pres.
Lyndon B. Johnson to use "all necessary measures" to repel armed attacks against U.S. forces in Vietnam. It was drafted in response to the alleged shelling of two U.S. navy ships by North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later information disputed the severity of the attack. The resolution was cited as authorization for the subsequent expansion of the Vietnam War ; many in Congress came to see it as a blank check for the president, and it was repealed in 1970.