policy - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
The Cuban Resolution of 1962 invited debate as it was first
proposed because it permitted the president to use "armed force to prevent
exportation of communism to the rest of the hemisphere." This was considered
by several congressmen to be far too great a relinquishment of
power by Congress to the president, and the resolution was changed to
reflect instead a statement of policy Despite congressional interest in
being included in policy making, subsequent actions taken by Kennedy
regarding Cuba were pursued regardless of congressional concerns and
without consultation.
3. Congress, the President and the Vietnam War
Many domestic factors influenced the conduct of the war in
"Vietnam, but only the US Congress had the political power to end it.
Congress did not move through direct and unified action until after the
1973 ceasefire. Until that time, a seripe of indirect moves within Congress
served to demonstrate the growing opposition to the war among the
legislators. Direct measures of congressional control include the functions
of Congress to oversee and to approve budgets as well as that of
Congress as lawmaker, and the principal indirect means whereby Congress
brings about change involves the political pressure and bargaining power
which Congress has. It was not direct congressional action that finally
brought US participation in the war to a close. Rather, as congressional
opposition to US involvement grew, President Nixon and his National
Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger set out on a deliberate course to
extricate US forces while strengthening the RVNAF. The skilled hand of
Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird also figured prominently in the administration's
ability to execute its programs over a four-year period in the
face of increasing congressional opposition to the war. Certainly, the
increasing number of antiwar votes over time within Congress demonstrated
growing dissent: antiwar votes increased from five roll call votes taken
f v in 1969 to thirty-five in 1972.
* When J. F. Kennedy won the presidency by only a slim margin in
* 1960, he was conf,,onted with the challenge of gaining the control of Congress.
Quite apart from his foreign policy ventures, Kennedy needed the
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