The Vietnamese had not committed an aggressive act against the United States until the United States decided to get involved. Furthermore, Grotius would not have agreed that the spread of a political ideology was a sufficient cause for the potential loss of life. This also affects the proportionality requirement. While the United States considered the spread of communism a threat to global democracy, the threat to democracy does not in itself pose a threat to human life. Furthermore, France had demonstrated that lives would be lost fighting an insurgency in Vietnam. As America's involvement grew, so did Vietnamese military power. The ratio was inversely related to the U.S. Army's reasonable chances of success. Over the course of the conflict it became increasingly clear that contributing more troops would only result in the loss of more lives. On August 7, 1964, the United States Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. (HJ Resolution 1145, 1964) This satisfied both the requirements for public declaration and for authorization by a lawful authority. Finally, the war in Vietnam was not a last resort. The United States did not support the Geneva Accords of July 20, 1954. If the United States had allowed free elections and supported unification efforts, the Vietnam War might have been avoided