Question

How did the Gulf of Tonkin resolution escalate the Vietnam war?

Answer 1

President Johnson announced that the north Vietnamese attacked the Gulf of Tonkin, then creating the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which  gave Johnson permission to do anything necessary to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast asia. 

Answer 2

The Tonkin Resolution was a resolution that gave President Lyndon B. Johnson the authority to conduct military operations in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of war by Congress.

The immediate reason for the resolution was the Tonkin incident, in which five North Vietnam torpedo boats attacked the US destroyer USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin and a possible second attack on August 4, 1964. In retaliation, the US Air Force bombed North Vietnam for the first time.