Ellsberg worked in the Pentagon from August 1964 under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara as special assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs John McNaughton. this point of Lyndon Johnson's escalation into the Vietnam War, Ellsberg would later discover the lies and subsequent cover-up of the "non-attacks" upon the USS Maddox, in the Gulf of Tonkin ("by North Vietnam"), which led to bombing raids into North Vietnam on August 2 and 4, 1964, under orders by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This unprovoked attack upon North Vietnam followed Senator Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign statement where he stated that Johnson was soft on Communism, "no matter where it is!" Johnson's actions risked bringing Chinese forces into the war.