As the United States Congress prepares to vote on war against Syria, it is useful to review the start of a previous war based on calculated lies and deceptions by the president in power. The Vietnam War began in ernest with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, legislation which President Johnson felt he needed to escalate aggression against North Vietnam already occurring with raids on the North Vietnamese coastline (OPLAN 34-A). The second attack on August 4, 1964 against the destroyer USS Maddox which Johnson said was the reason for his request, did not occur. Congress gave the President authorization to use conventional forces in Southeast Asia on August 7, 1964 without an actual declaration of war. Because of the dubious Tonkin incident and more than a decade of socially debilitating and unpopular war in Southeast Asia, Congress moved to reclaim its concurrent war powers under the Constitution with the passage of the War Powers Act of 1973