Word: tonkin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...rationale for supporting the President -- oil, aggression and cynicism about sanctions -- turned into a footnote once Congress voted; what mattered was that at last proper constitutional norms had been followed. How easy it had been during Vietnam (a war mounted under the dubious fig leaf of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution) to reject personal complicity in the carnage. Blame, as I do, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger for the names on the wailing wall in Washington. But today, for the first time in my life, I freely accept, as an American citizen, responsibility...
...overseas. Wilson was reluctant to enter World War I. It took the sinking of the Lusitania, at the cost of 128 American lives, to draw him in. Had it not been for Pearl Harbor, America Firsters might have prevailed in keeping the U.S. out of World War II. The Tonkin Gulf incident, in which Washington claimed North Vietnamese patrol boats fired on U.S. warships, provided Lyndon Johnson with a pretext to secure congressional support of the escalation in Vietnam...
...Congress approved the moral equivalent of a war declaration with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which authorized Lyndon Johnson to use whatever force was necessary to protect U.S. troops in Vietnam. Frustrated by the bootless escalation of that conflict, Congress nine years later overrode Richard Nixon's veto of legislation requiring a President to withdraw troops from hostile areas after 60 days unless Congress approves the deployment. Several Presidents have declared that War Powers Resolution unconstitutional, although none asked the courts for a ruling...
Vietnam changed the way Americans view the Presidency and foreign policy. Support for Lyndon B. Johnson's bombing in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident was widespread, despite doubts about the incident's veracity. Today, the media's former trust has been replaced with cynicism...
...exclusive right to declare war, events have a way of handing that power to Presidents. Relying on a decision of the U.N., Harry Truman committed troops to Korea without specific authorization from Congress. Lyndon Johnson launched his escalation of the Vietnam War from the shaky platform of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, the nearest thing to congressional approval he could point to -- or needed...