Treaty Ratification

Archive Report

Senate Unrest Over Foreign-Policy Role

Importance Attached to Ratification of SALT

When the senate acts on the arms agreements President Nixon brought home from Moscow, its considerations will be weighted by more than the immediate issues of national security and world peace. A sense of frustration felt in Congress, especially in the Senate, bears on the debate. It arises from a view that the legislative role is withering under the impact of presidential diplomacy in the nuclear age. The Senate's right of “advice and consent” in treaty making, the constitutional device for injecting its will into the shaping of foreign policy, often has been bypassed by recent Presidents through executive agreements and other means.

Of the two Strategic Arms Limitation (Salt) pacts signed in Moscow1 on May ...

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