War Powers of the President

Report Outline
Congress and the War in Viet Nam
Development of President's War Powers
Sweep of Emergency Powers and Plans

Congress and the War in Viet Nam

Congress appeared to give President Johnson a vote of confidence in his handling of the Vietnamese war when both houses on March 1 approved a bill authorizing $4.8 billion in supplementary military funds. But the margin of approval —392 to 4 in the House, 93 to 2 in the Senate —was misleading. Many members who voted for the bill did so only to express support of the more than 200,000 American fighting men now in South Viet Nam. Widespread uneasiness over the course of the war, frequently expressed in and out of Congress in recent weeks, has not abated.

The Vietnamese conflict has reminded Congress that its constitutional power to declare war counts for little in today's world. It can be argued, in fact, that Congress never has exercised that power on its own initiative and is unlikely ever to do so. Only five of this country's 11 serious and extended engagements with force against another country or countries have been accompanied by a declaration of war —and then only in response to the President's acts or recommendations. Beginning with the Spanish-American War of 1898, a declaration of war by Congress has taken the form, not of an outright declaration, but of recognition of an existing state of war.

Congress virtually abdicated the power to declare war in Viet Nam when it adopted, in August 1964, a joint resolution authorizing the President to “take all necessary measures” to stop aggression in Southeast Asia. The measures taken to date have included, among others, a tenfold increase in the number of American troops in Southeast Asia. If Congress had been able to foresee this development, it might have added a number of qualifications to the 1964 resolution. Any future resolution of this kind probably will contain language specifying the measures which Congress deems appropriate for use by the President.