policy - The Black Vault

THE BDM CORPORATION
C. Nixon Administration
The Nixon Administration,
relying upon the legal support of
such advisers -As Assistant Attoroney General William Rehnquist, maintained
that US
actions in Vietnam were justified under the Commander-in-Chief
clause of the Constitution.
Unlike Katzenbach within Johnson's administration,
no effort was made to find legal justification for President Nixon's
decisions regarding Vietnam iii either SEATO or the Southeast Asia Resolution.
Heavy reliance was placed instead upon the position of the president
as Commander-in-Chief.
Nixon saw no need to secure congressional approval
as he explained the incursion into Cambodia in 1970, "The legal justification
. . is the right of the President of the United States under the
Constitution to protect the lives of American men." 71/ Opponents of the
president's Vietnam policies in Congress found this argument one that
provided the president full command of the war. No one would argue for a
policy which might endanger American troops, yet such a justification
permitted the president to continue US involvement. Such legal justification
are circular arguments for involvement: US tr-ýops overseas must be •
protected, so materiel must be sei:t to the troops, and hence the war will
continue. It then becomes very difficult for Congress to terminate the
war. 72/ Gespite the fact that .'s o,
Vietnam policy was one of US withdrawal,
the US incursion into Cambodia brought a resurgence of the legal
arguments.
Was the president acting within his constitutional authority as
Commander-in-Chief? Or perhaps had Congress been denied its constitutionally
granted authority to aeclare war? Legal scholars renewed their
debates on prasidential authority to make tactical decisions during a war
Sand on the authority of Congress to terminate the war. Nixon, however,
continued to rely solely on his interpretation of a strung central presidency,
and as late as April 1973, following the withdrawal of US troops,
Nixon invoked his position as Commander-in-Chief responsible for the
enforcement of Article 20 of the Paris agreement as justification for the
E" continuation of the air war in Cambodia. 73/ Wher the Congress was jolted
from passivity by the continuing war over Cambodia, it finally began tV
reassert itself through exercise of the power of the purse and through
I, 5-29