The surface Helmholtz integral equation (SHIE) for the acoustic pressure on an object whose surfaceSvibrates harmonically with a given normal velocity, is known to fail by nonuniqueness at certain “characteristic” frequencies. These frequencies are identical to the eigenfrequencies of the homogeneous Dirichlet problem for a volume of fluid enclosed by the surfaceS. This paper deals with nondegenerate characteristic frequencies, that is, frequencies at which exactly one independent solution of the interior homogeneous Dirichlet problem exists but no nontrivial solutions of the interior homogeneous Neuman problem exist. The problem is reformulated in terms of operators on the Hilbert space of functions which are square integrable overS. The eigenvectors of the (skew‐Hermitian) Green's function operator for the interior Neumann problem provide an orthonormal basis for the space and, hence, the unknown Green's function operator for the exterior Dirichlet problem can be completely specified by its matrix elements with respect to these eigenvectors. The nonuniqueness failure of the SHIE is found to result from the indeterminacy of a single element of this infinite matrix. An expression for the indeterminate matrix element is obtained directly from the SHIE by a perturbation technique yielding a formal solution of the problem.