Government Lies From Vietnam For nearly a decade, the civil conflict in Vietnam was merely a footnote to the evening news in the United States. But with the first reports of an “unprovoked attack” on the U.S. destroyer Maddox by the North Vietnamese in the summer of 1964, Americans were faced with a whole new vernacular of war. The United States government consistently lied to the American people through propaganda, censorship, and disinformation during the Vietnam War in order to gain support for the war effort. The governments deception of the American people can be separated into individual battles, CIA involvement,