 To compensate for the weaknesses of the South Vietnamese state, by late winter of 1964, senior officials in the Johnson administration such as McNamara's deputy, William Bundy, the assistant secretary of defence, were advocating American intervention in the war.Such intervention presented a constitutional problem to intervene on the scale envisioned would mean waging war, and only Congress had the legal power to declare war.Fearful of causing a war with China, Johnson was opposed to the plans of Khánh to invade North Vietnam, and he was even less enthusiastic about having the United States invade North Vietnam.