On July 31st, 1964 South Vietnamese troops made sabotage acts against the North Vietnames isles of Hon Me and Hon Niem. The reaction was, that North Vietnamese boats attacked the USS Madox in the southern Chinese sea. The boats were disctructed very fast, but Johnson could not use this as an aggression, because then the undercover operations would have been known. That’s why they ignored the attack. But a few weeks later the USS Madox was attacked again. It is not sure though, if this attack has really taken place, because the captain of the USS Madox withdrew the announcement of the attack later on. But it was too late. Johnson and McNamara presented the congress a resolution to bombard North Vietnam. The resolution was accepted. Johnson though was worried about the situation in Indochina, because 1964 was an election year and he did not want to send ground troops at that time.