"President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told the Amewrican public there was an attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on American destroyers. 'While on routine patrol in international waters,' McNamara said, 'the U.S. destoyer Maddox undewent an unprovoked attack.' It later turned out that the Gulf of Tonkin episode was a fake, that the highest American officials had lied to the public - just as they had in the invasion of Cuba under Kennedy. In fact, the CIA had engaged in a secret operation attacking North Vietnamese coastal installations--so if there had been an attack it would not have been 'unprovoked.' It was not a 'routine patrol,' because the Maddox was on a special electronic spying mission. And it was not in international waters but in Vietnamese territorial waters. It turned out that no torpedos were fired at the Maddox, as McNamara said. Another reported attack on another destroyer, two nights later, which Johnson called 'open aggression on the high seas,' seems also to have been an invention."

-Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. p476

BTW, I realize that "stage" was a bad word to use. I meant invent, but I figured you'd get the point anyway.