I’d often joke that the '60s were the stinkier version of the '20s, at least the latter half of the decade. Also, that generational shift in the '60s is still somewhat of a controversial issue today, at least from my experience. Tell me if I’m wrong on that.
Another still-controversial issue is Vietnam. Even without the Gulf of Tonkin “incident,” U.S. involvement was bound to happen in one way or another (this is the Cold War, after all). Hell, they were already interfering before the “incident.” The U.S. was giving small-scale assistance to South Vietnam (even sending the Green Berets in 1962), but not leading South Vietnamese forces – that was what changed after the “incident.” It’s not that the U.S. got themselves in Vietnam after the “incident.” It’s just that the “incident” scaled it up to 11 and made the U.S., along with some other nations, the (somewhat) main players.
A U.S. crewman runs from a crashed CH-21 Shawnee troop helicopter near the village of Ca Mau in the southern tip of South Vietnam, on December 11, 1962. Two helicopters crashed without serious injuries during a government raid on the Viet Cong-infiltrated area. Both helicopters were destroyed to keep them out of enemy hands.