US intervention in Vietnam without Tonkin Incident

kernals12

Banned
The Gulf of Tonkin incident where Captain Herrick of the USS Maddox sent a telegraph stating an "apparent ambush" by North Vietnamese troops, but then later recanted it, is what brought about the Vietnam war. Now, I assume that, even if this incident never occurred, the US would still have had escalated its presence in Vietnam to prevent South Vietnam from falling to the Communists. What do you think this would looked like? Would the US simply send in more advisors and train more South Vietnamese troops, or would the US also begin air raids on the North?
 
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