The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Agency

National Security Agency

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • DEF-2.1: The NSA historian Robert Hanyok concluded in a study published in 2001 that no attack on U.S. destroyers occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin on the night of 4 August 1964, and his study confirms the 2 August 1964 engagement with the Maddox. He wrote that the mishandling of the signals intelligence was "not done in a manner that can be construed as conspiratorial" and that NSA personnel believed the attack had happened.
  • DEF-2.2: Hanyok found that "The withheld information constituted nearly 90 percent of all available SIGINT" and that "only SIGINT that supported the claim that the communists had attacked the two destroyers was given to administration officials."

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 376 Winter 2000/Spring 2001; declassified 1 December 2005. National Security Agency (Robert J. Hanyok, Cryptologic Quarterly): Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery, 2-4 August 1964
  • Exhibit 377 1 December 2005. National Security Archive, George Washington University: Tonkin Gulf Intelligence 'Skewed' According to Official History and Intercepts (Electronic Briefing Book No. 132 update)
  • Exhibit 378 31 October 2005. New York Times (Scott Shane), via History News Network: Vietnam Study, Casting Doubts, Remains Secret (excerpt)