Gulf of Tonkin

The Gulf of Tonkin (or bay of Beibu ; in Vietnamese VI Vịnh Bắc Bộ and in Chinese zh 北部湾), measuring approximately 470 km by 240 km, is located between the China and the Vietnam. Enough not very deep as a whole (less than 60 m), it is the north-western arm of the southernmost China Sea.

Its port S principal is Beihai and Hải Phòng (in China and in Vietnam, respectively).

One finds there several islands, of which Hainan, largest, and Weizhou, the two pertaining one to China.

The Red Fleuve pours its water there.

The name Tonkin (in Chinese zh 東京 and Vietnamese VI Đông Kinh ), wants to say capital of the east and is one of the old names of Hanoï, the capital of Vietnam.

During the war of Vietnam

See also: Incidental of the gulf of Tonkin, Resolution of the gulf of Tonkin

In August 1964, the American president Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that the North-Vietnameses forces had attacked twice Destroyer S American in the gulf. There had been, indeed, an attack (a counterpart for the operations American-south-Vietnameses on the coast), but of it a second ago. This started engagement opened from the United States in the War of Vietnam, official after the signature of the Resolution of the gulf of Tonkin.

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