policy - The Black Vault

THE 3DM CORPORATION
CHAPTER 5
DOMESTIC POLITICAL FACTORS INFLUENCING
VIETNAM WAR DFCISION MAKING
A. INTRODUCTION
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the
society but the people themselves;, and if we think them
not enlightened-enough to exercise their control with a
wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from
them, but to inform their discretion. i/
Thomas Jefferson
Letter to William Charles
Jarvis
September 28, 1820.
I am convinced that congressional embarrassment at the
failure to weigh all the factors involved in the Tonkin
resolution has been responsible for the burgeoning
assertiveness of the movement in the Senate at long
last to curb the war-making power of the President. 2/
Jacob Javits
US Vietnam war policies were formulated in response to the evolving
situation in Southeast Asia and to other international pressures. The
changing US domestic political environment was also a strong influence on
the nature and style of the war-related decisions of the successive administrations
that struggled with the intractable problem of the Vietnam war.
The presidents who had to make oecisions pertaining to Vietnam were
reacting not only to the recommendations of their advisors who were cognizant
of international pressures, but also to the less abstract domestic
•; (political problems of preserving political alliances and of expanding their
political bases. The Vietnam war demonstrated the extent to which foreign
policy decision making had become centralized in the presidency. It is
essential to an understanding of the decisions taken by the presidents
during the Vietnam war to describe the domestic factors influencing presi-
"dential politics and their relationships to the war related decisions.
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