February 6, 2007
DID NO ONE GET THE PERLSTEIN MEMO?:
How Congress Helped End the Vietnam War: Once upon a time, Congress put an end to a bloody debacle. It can do it again. (Julian E. Zelizer, 02.06.07, American Prospect)
The proposals to restrict funds and force withdrawal produced intense pressure on Nixon to bring an end to the war on his own terms before his legislative opponents gained too much ground. During Nixon's first term, there were 80 roll call votes on the war in Congress; there had only been 14 between 1966 and 1968. In 1971, Mansfield attached an amendment to three pieces of legislation that required withdrawal of U.S. forces nine months after Congress passed the legislation. The White House warned that the president would not abide by this declaration. Congress agreed to pass the amendment but only after deleting the withdrawal date and declaring it to be a sense-of-Congress resolution, rather than a policy declaration, which was stronger. While the Senate had watered down the amendment, the expanding number of votes in support of it made the administration well aware of an increasingly active and oppositional Congress.In 1972, Church and Senator Clifford Case of New Jersey were able to push through the Senate an amendment to foreign-aid legislation that would end funding for all U.S. military operations in Southeast Asia except for withdrawal (subject to the release of all prisoners of war). Senate passage of the legislation, with the amendment, marked the first time that either chamber had passed a provision establishing a cutoff of funds for continuing the war. Though House and Senate conferees failed to reach an agreement on the measure, the support for the amendment was seen by the administration as another sign that antiwar forces were gaining strength. The McGovern-Hatfield amendment was enormously popular with the public. A January 1971 Gallup poll showed that public support for the amendment stood at 73 percent.
During the final negotiations with the Vietnamese over ending the war, culminating with the 1972 Christmas Bombings and the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, the president knew that he only had a limited amount of time before Congress finally used the power of the purse to bring the war to an end -- regardless of what the administration wanted. Indeed, to make certain that the president could not reverse course, in June 1973 Congress passed legislation that included an amendment sponsored by Church and Case to prohibit the use of more funds in Southeast Asia after August 15. Sixty-four senators voted in favor. When the House assented, its vote marked the first time that chamber had agreed to cut off funds, too.
Most importantly, Congress passed the War Powers Act in 1973 over Nixon's veto. The legislation imposed a series of restrictions on the executive branch to ensure that the president would have to consult with the House and Senate before authorizing the troops for long periods of time.
For the remainder of the decade, congress continued to legislate its ideas about U.S. conduct in the Cold War and to restrict the authority of the executive branch. In 1975, Congress refused President Gerald Ford's last-minute request to increase aid to South Vietnam by $300 million, just weeks before it fell to communist control. Few legislators had taken the request seriously; many conservative Republicans and hawkish Democrats agreed by then that Vietnam was lost and that the expenditure would have been a waste.
Nor did Congress restrict its actions to Southeast Asia. Congress passed an amendment in 1976 that banned the use of funds to fight communist forces in Angola. Frustrated with these decisions, Henry Kissinger complained that "we are living in a nihilistic nightmare. It proves that Vietnam is not an aberration but our normal attitude."
Weren't we supposed to be pretending that Congressional Democrats didn't sell out our Vietnamese allies? Posted by Orrin Judd at February 6, 2007 5:55 PM
Ovid:
"I sing of ancient poets' monstrous lies,
Ne'er seen now or then by human eyes."
The Dolchstoss congress threw out the treaty theretofore won with our bombs. The Vietnam conflict had been won with the Christmas bombing, the 16-day war. It was the November criminals who disgraced our country by their repudiation of the Treaty of Paris.
Posted by: at February 6, 2007 6:14 PM
That last had been mine, if anyone could not tell. Sorry
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 6, 2007 6:16 PMOnce upon a time, Congress put an end to a bloody debacle. Didn't someone in the congressional majority just recently deny that they did exactly that?
Posted by: erp at February 6, 2007 6:41 PM93rd Congress, 1973
Senate - 56 Democratic, 42 Republican, 2 Independent
House - 242 Democratic, 192 Republican, 1 Independent
110th Congress, 2007
Senate - 49 Democratic, 49 Republican, 2 Independent
House - 233 Democratic, 202 Republican
Quite a difference
Posted by: Brandon at February 6, 2007 6:42 PM"Congress put an end to a bloody debacle."
If you know any, ask a Vietnamese American about the truth of that statement, Mr. Zelizer. Sickening.
Posted by: b at February 6, 2007 7:17 PMOr ask any of several million Cambodians. Oh, that's right. They all got made into omelets.
Just another example of the provincial sanctimonious narcissism of the Left.
I think Americans at the time were a little more upset with the way a certain Republican president sold out the American people.
Posted by: Luisa at February 6, 2007 8:11 PMLuisa, what the heck are you talking about?
Posted by: Robert Mitchell Jr. at February 6, 2007 9:14 PMA Republican president sold out the American people?
Posted by: erp at February 6, 2007 10:56 PMNixon and his people were looking for evidence that the Democrats were in league with the Communists. What a crazy idea.
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 7, 2007 5:21 AMLuisa's right, Nixon and Ford were just as bad as Kennedy and company. The '70s were the abyss.
Posted by: oj![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://brothersjuddblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
Oh, I don't know, the days of Alger Hiss were fairly abysmal. Nixon's problem was being torn between doing what was right while worrying about the editorial pages of the NYT and the Washington Post. Ditto Jerry Ford.
Posted by: Tom C at February 7, 2007 9:02 AMoj. Sorry, not even close.
Posted by: erp at February 7, 2007 2:42 PMNixon and Ford were Realists, they could care less what was right.
Posted by: oj![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://brothersjuddblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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