[jeffersondem]

“Lincoln provoked this. He brought a carrier battle group to the area and had it doing naval exercises near Ft Sumter. The Navy jets were mercilessly buzzing Ft Sumter. The Confederates had enough and started firing.”

Another thing Lincoln did in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was to get Congress riled up enough that they gave him a blank check to pursue an undeclared war, the costliest ever for the states in terms of lives.

I meant to say the Fort Sumter Incident.

[HereInTheHeartland]

“ Another thing Lincoln did in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was to get Congress riled up enough that they gave him a blank check to pursue an undeclared war, the costliest ever for the states in terms of lives.”

That’s likely due to the embarrassment that Lincoln felt after the Russians downed our U2 spyplane.
Lincoln had to do something to save face