What an excellent and well timed question, thank you.. . Most people believe that the start of the war was a response to North Vietnamese patrol boats firing on the US destroyer USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964. This "attack" was the all the reason needed for the US to "respond" with bombing raids on North Vietnam.. . But, and this is important, there was a report that came out a few days ago that basically states the North Vietnamese did NOT shoot at our destroyer and further the N. Vietnamese had no idea where our destroyer was!