During the Vietnam War on August 2, 1964 when torpedo boats were spotted, the destroyer USS Maddox was gathering signals intelligence to assist South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) commando raids on North Vietnamese targets. Historians now suspect the North Vietnamese boats had set out to attack an ARVN raid in progress when it encountered the Maddox.
The original caption for this photograph reads: “Photograph of North Vietnamese Torpedo Boat Viewed from the U.S.S. Maddox During the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.”
