0 - The Black Vault

THE BOM CORPORATION
accustomed during the years of direct US
involvement and upon which it had
grown dependent.
b. Congress Reasserts Itself' Restricdions on US Armed
Intervention - The Impact of the War Powers Resolution
and Other Congress 4 ona& Limitations on the US Follow-On
Effort
In the late spring of 1q73,
concurrent with tne rumblings of
the advancing Watergate scandal and Congress' concern over the Nixon
Sadministration's apparent attempt to reinvoivc! the US in Southeast Asia,
V the US legislative branch began actively to assert itself in the riaking of
US fireign policy. In May 1973, te house recommended that all supporting
funds for the bombing of Cambodia be terminated.
In July, both the House
and Senate passed this recoqimendation, and prohibited US military activity
after 15 August 1973, in, over, or off the shores of Cambodia, Lacs, and
Vietnam without explicit congressional approval,24/ These restrictions,
II
occurring when they did, had as much psychological impact on the GVN as
physical: from Saigon's perspective, actions on the Capitol Hill battlefield,
the Nixoa administratien's problems with Watergate, the GVN's own
difficulties with inflation and shortages, and the increased activities of
Hanoi were il perplexing developments that called into question the United
States' earlier assurances to GVN President Thieu.,
On 7 Novefmer 1973, the US Congress pasied Public Law 93-
148, commonly referred to as the War Powers Resolution. Its passage marked
the culmination of four years of congressional effort to provide for more
ample future participation of the legislative branch in decisions regarding
US fo.-ce commitments abroad. Figure 8-2, "The War Powers Resolution and
Its Antecedents," illustrates the progression of congressional legislation
during these years as it moved towards its climax in the War Powers
Resolvtion.25/
After the resolution'i passage, questions regarding its
constitutionality arose; an assessment of this issue is not undertaken
here, both because such an effort is beyond the intended scope uf this
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