Word: tonkin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Both moves are laudable. President Johnson has gone far beyond the intent of the 89th Congress, which passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964 to back him after U.S. ships exchanged fire with North Vietnamese gunboats. Although the Tonkin resolution authorized the President to "take all necessary measures" to "prevent further aggression," Johnson gave no indication until after the 1964 elections that he intended to embark on a policy of sharp escalation...
...begin a conflict by a declaration of war, and then sustain it by voting whatever appropriations the President requests to carry on the fighting. The U.S., of course, has not declared war in Viet Nam. Nonetheless, in 1964 Congress did pass, with only two dissenting votes, the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, affirming its readiness "to approve and support the determination of the President, as Commander in Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression...
Fulbright himself sponsored the Tonkin resolution, a fact he now loudly regrets, claiming that the President has taken the measure as a blank check to wage unlimited war without any further consultation with Congress. For his part, President Johnson argued at his last press conference that Congress could vote to rescind the Tonkin resolution-but that also was legalistic legerdemain, since the President insisted at the same time that he had had no constitutional need for the Tonkin resolution in the first place...
Even Fulbright does not believe that the Tonkin resolution should be rescinded. "I don't advocate its being brought up," he said. "An overwhelming defeat of such a move would be interpreted as an affirmation." Still, Illinois' Charles Percy, as a voluntary witness before the committee, suggested that the President should annually "itemize for the Congress our national commitments as he sees them, detailing the nature of each commitment, its limitations, and the justification for it in terms of national interest." In fact-if informally-Johnson has consulted more closely with Congress on foreign policy than...
...propaganda." To his critics on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is holding hearings to prove its contention that congressional authority in foreign affairs is being trampled upon, Johnson insisted he was within his constitutional rights to conduct undeclared war in Viet Nam. He reminded them of the broad Tonkin Gulf resolution, passed three years ago, in which Congress approved "all necessary steps, including the use of armed force...