The Gulf of Tonkin is located in the South China Sea off the coast of two countries - China and Vietnam. On the east side, it is separated from the sea by the Leizhu Peninsula and the small island of Hainan, and from the mainland by the Hainan Strait.
Names
Interestingly, the Vietnamese officially call the Gulf of Tonkin Vinbakbo, which literally means "North Bay". Its name is also known Vinhaynam, that is, "Hainan Bay."
The Chinese have their own name - Beibuvan. But the name of the Gulf of Tonkin comes from the old name of the city of Hanoi, which sounds like Tonkin. Later it spread to all of northern Vietnam. China and this country claim the gulf.
Specifications
Bucco Bay, as it is also called, has a length of 330 kilometers. The width at the entrance is 241 kilometers, and the depth reaches 82 meters.
Tides in the Gulf of Tonkin daily allowance - up to six meters. The higher areas are the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.
The Ma and Ka rivers flow into the bay, flowing through the territory of Vietnam and Laos, as well as the Hongha River, which is located in the northern part of Vietnam and in the southern part of China.
Sea
The South China Sea on the map is located off the coast of Southeast Asia, directly between the islands of Palawan, Kalimantan, Taiwan, Luzon and the Indochina Peninsula.
Tonkin and the Gulf of Thailand are considered the largest in the South China Sea. It attracts many, as it is rich in biological resources. Commercial fish here are herring, tuna and sardines.
World Heritage Site
One of the main natural attractions in the Gulf of Tonkin is Halong Bay. Some come to Vietnam specifically to visit it. This is a popular tourist destination in the province of Quang Ninh.
The bay includes about three thousand islands, as well as small cliffs, cliffs and caves. The total area of the bay is about one and a half thousand square kilometers. The underwater and terrestrial world is highly monotonous. Thanks to him, the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam is one of the most attractive places for tourists.
Literally from the Vietnamese language, Halong is translated by the phrase "where the dragon descended into the sea." There is a legend according to which the island of the same name was created by a huge dragon. He lived in a mountainous area, and when he got out of there, he hollowed out with his tail hollows and valleys of the most unusual kind. Then went to sea. The places that were dug by the tail were filled with water, as a result only small islands of land were preserved.
Currently, the most civilized is Tuanchau, which was the summer residence of Ho Chi Minh. It is also planned to build a large-scale resort complex there.
A large island in Halong Bay - Kathba. In 1986, approximately half of its territory officially became a national park. Here you can see a large number of waterfalls, lakes and grottoes, along the shores of amazing beauty is coral reefs. Famous caves in the bay are the Maiden, Bonau Grotto, the Heavenly Palace. The Drum grotto is also known, which is so called because of sounds similar to the drum rhythm that were heard from it with gusts of wind.
Climate in the bay
The local climate is tropical. There are only two seasons - cold and dry winters and wet and hot summers. The average annual temperature ranges from 15 to 25 degrees.
About two thousand millimeters of precipitation falls annually.
History
Many important battles unfolded in this bay, in which Vietnam and its coastal neighbors participated. Due to the winding labyrinth of canals and rocks, the Vietnamese army managed to stop the aggression of the Chinese neighbors three times.
In 1288, the Vietnamese commander Chiang Heung Dao managed to stop the Mongol invasion. Enemy ships tried to make their way along a nearby river called Bach Dang. To do this, steel boards were installed at high tide. As a result, the fleet of the Mongol Khan Khubilai was flooded.
At the end of the 18th century, the bay became a refuge for numerous pirates, whom the Vietnamese and Chinese authorities could not destroy. Only in 1810 they were forced to leave these places, hiding from the British fleet along the rivers.
During the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1957 to 1975, most of the passages in the bay were mined by the US Navy. Some of them still pose a serious threat. In the years of this confrontation with the Americans, neighboring China supported North Vietnam by supplying anti-aircraft guns and ships. Based in Halong, they were used by the Vietnamese fleet to prevent the likely invasion of the Chinese, as well as to monitor the coast.
Currently, about one and a half thousand people live in the bay. They are located in four fishing villages - Bahang, Kyawan, Wongweng and Kongtau.
Incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin
Two episodes that occurred in these waters in the summer of 1964 are known by this name. They involved the naval forces of North Vietnam and the United States. As a result of the second incident, the US Congress adopted the Tonkin resolution. She officially allowed Johnson to begin the direct use of force in the Vietnam War.
Recall that Vietnam in 1954 was divided into two parts according to the results of the Geneva agreements, which completed the colonial war of France in Indochina. Then it was assumed that within a few years it will be possible to hold a democratic vote, after which both parts of the country will reunite. But the vote was disrupted.
In 1957, the communist partisans from South Vietnam launched armed resistance against the pro-American leadership led by Ngo Dinh Zema, disrupting the implementation of the Geneva agreements.
By 1964, the Americans supported the South Vietnamese government by providing military advisers and weapons, but did not directly participate in the war. In August, there was an American ship in the bay that conducted radio intelligence. It was the destroyer Maddox.
August 2, 1964
The first incident occurred on August 2. According to the Americans, the Maddox was in international waters. The crew discovered three approaching torpedo boats belonging to North Vietnam.
According to the team, they acted belligerently, the commander of the ship ordered to shoot into the air. In response, the boats began to produce torpedoes on the destroyer, but they passed by. Deck fighters, who performed a training flight, entered the naval battle. Having received damage, they stopped the attack. It is believed that one of the boats was sunk.
According to the Vietnamese side, a squadron of torpedo boats attacked the Maddox, expelling it. At the same time, questions remain as to where exactly the destroyer was located, perhaps it entered the territorial waters that belonged to North Vietnam. US authorities decided not to react to the events in the Gulf of Tonkin, considering it an accident.
August 4, 1964
On August 4, a tropical storm occurred in the bay. Radars of American destroyers identified an unidentified ship. The captains received a warning on reconnaissance channels about the alleged attack from the North Vietnamese fleet. Radars showed that about ten unidentified targets were approaching the destroyers, and Americans opened fire.
Aircraft rose from the aircraft carrier, but found no other ships. The storm rose, so the crew of the destroyers did not visually find any objects that could be identified as North Vietnamese boats.
At this time, reports of the alleged attack were delivered to Washington. The situation was extremely confusing, conflicting information was constantly coming in. President Johnson, remembering the incident two days ago, suggested the likelihood of a second attack. He gave the order to launch airstrikes on the bases of torpedo boats, in particular, on the oil storage, so that the boats were left without fuel. On August 5, an operation known as the Piercing Arrow was performed. This was the first US aircraft attack on North Vietnam.
The American Congress was confronted with the fact of two aggressive actions of the naval forces of an Asian country. The so-called Tonkin Resolution was adopted, which allowed Johnson to act decisively to prevent subsequent attacks. This document became the legal permission to launch a full-scale military operation against Vietnam without a formal declaration of war.
Many experts noted that this incident was provoked by the American leadership in order to obtain a formal pretext for the outbreak of hostilities.