Formal, Official, Matter-of-fact, Accusatory

If there's one document that can make your heart soar, your spirits dance, your eyes fill with impassioned tears…it's not this one. (Try "I Have A Dream," y'all.)

Being a government legal document, there's only so far this resolution can go in terms of tone. It's formal because it has to be—it's not a speech or an opinion piece. It uses words like "whereas" (2, 3, 4) and "resolved by" (5) that indicate the formal, official nature. It's matter-of-fact because it doesn't waste any time expanding on details, it simply states what's happening. Ships were attacked, communists are bad, time to attack.

And lastly it's accusatory because it's pointing multiple fingers at North Vietnam, both for attacking U.S. ships and for spreading communism.