292. Editorial Note

At 11:30 a.m. on August 5, President Johnson spoke at the dedication ceremonies for a new journalism building at Syracuse University. After reviewing the attacks in the Gulf of Tonkin, he told of the U.S. reprisals and the referral of the question to the United Nations. He then reviewed U.S. policy in Vietnam since 1954 and the aggression of North Vietnam toward its neighbors.

Later in the day, the President sent a special message to Congress asking for a resolution “expressing the unity and determination of the United States in supporting freedom and in protecting the peace in Southeast Asia.”

Both the address and the message to Congress are printed in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963–64, Book II, pages 928–932, and Department of State Bulletin, August 24, 1964, pages 260–263.