Cooper–Church Amendment

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The Cooper–Church Amendment was introduced in the United States Senate during the Vietnam War. The amendment sought to cut off all funding to American war efforts in Cambodia and its proposal was the first time that Congress had restricted the deployment of troops during a war against the wishes of the president. [1]

United States Senate Upper house of the United States Congress

The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislature of the United States. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol, in Washington, D.C.

Vietnam War 1955–1975 conflict in Vietnam

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, and in Vietnam as the Resistance War Against America or simply the American War, was an undeclared war in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist allies; South Vietnam was supported by the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Thailand and other anti-communist allies. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war from some US perspectives. It lasted some 19 years with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973 following the Paris Peace Accords, and included the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, resulting in all three countries becoming communist states in 1975.

Contents

Background and congressional action

The amendment was presented by Senators John Sherman Cooper (Republican – Kentucky) and Frank Church (Democrat – Idaho) and attached to a major bill, the Foreign Military Sales Act of 1971. The proposal was introduced in response to the recent Cambodian Incursion, including Operations Binh Tay 1/Tame the West and Freedom Deal. [2] Senators Church and Cooper were several of the first politicians to begin openly and adamantly opposing the war in Vietnam. Their amendment sought to:

John Sherman Cooper politician, jurist, and diplomat from the U.S. state of Kentucky

John Sherman Cooper was an American politician, jurist, and diplomat from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He served three non-consecutive, partial terms in the United States Senate before being elected to two full terms in 1960 and 1966. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to India from 1955 to 1956 and U.S. Ambassador to East Germany from 1974 to 1976. He was the first Republican to be popularly elected to more than one term as a senator from Kentucky and, in both 1960 and 1966, he set records for the largest victory margin for a Kentucky senatorial candidate from either party.

Frank Church American politician

Frank Forrester Church III was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Idaho from 1957 to 1981. He is known for heading the Church Committee, which investigated abuses within the United States Intelligence Community.

Foreign Military Sales Act of 1971

The Foreign Military Sales Act of 1971, Pub.L. 91–672, 84 Stat. 2053, enacted January 12, 1971, was created as an amendment to the Foreign Military Sales Act of 1968. The Act of 1971 established declarations to promote international peace and national security for economic, political, and social progress. The declaration provided coordination for international armament appropriations meeting the objectives of the Nixon Administration's foreign policy.

  1. End funding to retain U.S. ground troops and military advisors in Cambodia and Laos after 30 June 1970
  2. Bar air operations in Cambodian airspace in direct support of Cambodian forces without congressional approval
  3. End American support for Republic of Vietnam forces outside territorial South Vietnam.

The Cooper-Church amendment received support from both sides in the Senate including backing from Mike Mansfield, [3] Jacob K. Javits, [4] William S. Symington, [5] and J. William Fulbright. [6] A majority of the supporters saw the amendment as an overdue attempt to reassert Congress’ constitutional control over the power to make war, while the Nixon administration condemned it as an unconstitutional intrusion into the President’s power as commander-in-chief. [7] After a seven-week filibuster and six months of debate, the amendment was approved by the Senate by a vote of 58 to 37 on 30 June 1970. The bill failed in the House of Representatives, which opposed inclusion of the amendment by a vote of 237 to 153. [8] President Richard M. Nixon threatened to veto the bill if it contained the Cooper–Church provisions, and the foreign assistance bill was subsequently passed without it.

Mike Mansfield United States Marine and American politician

Michael Joseph Mansfield was an American politician and diplomat. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Representative (1943–1953) and a U.S. Senator (1953–1977) from Montana. He was the longest-serving Senate Majority Leader, serving from 1961–1977. During his tenure, he shepherded Great Society programs through the Senate and strongly opposed the Vietnam War.

J. William Fulbright American politician

James William Fulbright was a United States Senator representing Arkansas from January 1945 until his resignation in December 1974. Fulbright is the longest serving chairman in the history of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A Southern Democrat and a staunch multilateralist who supported the creation of the United Nations, he was also a segregationist who signed the Southern Manifesto. Fulbright opposed McCarthyism and the House Un-American Activities Committee and later became known for his opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. His efforts to establish an international exchange program eventually resulted in the creation of a fellowship program which bears his name, the Fulbright Program.

Commander-in-chief supreme commanding authority of a military

A commander-in-chief, sometimes also called supreme commander, is the person that exercises supreme command and control over an armed forces or a military branch. As a technical term, it refers to military competencies that reside in a country's executive leadership – a head of state or a head of government.

Revisions

A revised Cooper–Church amendment, Public Law 91-652, passed both houses of Congress on 22 December 1970, and was enacted on 5 January 1971, although this version had limited restrictions on air operations and was attached to the Supplementary Foreign Assistance Act of 1970. [9] By that time, U.S. ground forces had already officially withdrawn from Cambodia, while U.S. bombing missions in Cambodia continued until 1973. The revised bill also included an amendment that repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, however this turned out to be insignificant as the Nixon administration cited the President’s constitutional powers as commander-in-chief rather than the resolution as the basis for his war making authority. [10] President Nixon denounced all versions of the amendment, claiming that they harmed the military effort and weakened the American bargaining position at the Paris peace talks. [11]

Foreign Assistance Act 1961 United States Act of Congress

The Foreign Assistance Act is a United States Act of Congress. The Act reorganized the structure of existing U.S. foreign assistance programs, distinguishing between military from non-military aid, and created a new agency, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to administer non-military, economic assistance programs. President John F. Kennedy signed the Act on November 3, 1961, and issued Executive Order 10973, detailing the reorganization.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution or the Southeast Asia Resolution, Pub.L. 88–408, 78 Stat. 384, enacted August 10, 1964, was a joint resolution that the United States Congress passed on August 7, 1964, in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Paris Peace Accords peace treaty

The Paris Peace Accords, officially titled the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam, was a peace treaty signed on January 27, 1973, to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War. The treaty included the governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Republic of Vietnam, and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries. US ground forces up to that point had been sidelined with deteriorating morale and gradually withdrawn to coastal regions, not partaking in offensive operations or much direct combat for the preceding two-year period. The Paris Agreement Treaty would in effect remove all remaining US Forces, including air and naval forces in exchange for Hanoi's POWs. Direct U.S. military intervention was ended, and fighting between the three remaining powers temporarily stopped for less than a day. The agreement was not ratified by the United States Senate.

Author David F. Schmitz stated that the amendment was a landmark in the history of opposition to the war, congressional initiatives to bring the fighting to an end, and efforts to control executive power in foreign policy. [1]

See also

Case–Church Amendment United States Law limiting further involvement in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

The Case–Church Amendment was legislation attached to a bill funding the U.S. State Department. it was approved by the U.S. Congress in June 1973 that prohibited further U.S. military activity in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia unless the president secured Congressional approval in advance. This ended direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War, although the U.S. continued to provide military equipment and economic support to the South Vietnamese government. It is named for its principal co-sponsors, Senators Clifford P. Case (R-NJ) and Frank Church (D-ID). The Amendment was defeated 48–42 in the U.S. Senate in August 1972, but revived after the 1972 election. It was reintroduced on January 26, 1973 and approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 13. When it became apparent that the Amendment would pass, President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, lobbied frantically to have the deadline extended. However, under pressure from the extreme scrutiny of Watergate, Republicans relented on support for Vietnam and the amendment passed the United States Congress in June 1973 by a margin of 325–86 in the House, 73–16 in the Senate. Both of these margins for the amendment's passage were greater than the two-thirds majority required to override a presidential veto, and Nixon signed it on July 1, 1973. Although U.S. forces had been withdrawn from South Vietnam earlier pursuant to the Paris Peace Accords, air support and monetary support for Cambodia and Laos continued until August 15, 1973, the deadline set by the Amendment.

The McGovern–Hatfield Amendment was a proposed amendment to an appropriations bill in 1970 during the Vietnam War that, if passed, would have required the end of United States military operations in the Republic of Vietnam by December 31, 1970 and a complete withdrawal of American forces halfway through the next year. It was the most outstanding defiance of executive power regarding the war prior to 1971. The amendment was proposed by Senators George McGovern of South Dakota and Mark Hatfield of Oregon, and was known as the "amendment to end the war."

Nixon Doctrine

The Nixon Doctrine was put forth during a press conference in Guam on July 25, 1969 by US President Richard Nixon and later formalized in his speech on Vietnamization on November 3, 1969. According to Gregg Brazinsky, Nixon stated that "the United States would assist in the defense and developments of allies and friends", but would not "undertake all the defense of the free nations of the world." This doctrine meant that each ally nation was in charge of its own security in general, but the United States would act as a nuclear umbrella when requested. The Doctrine argued for the pursuit of peace through a partnership with American allies. The Nixon Doctrine implied the intentions of Nixon shifting the direction on international policies in Asia, especially aiming for "Vietnamization of the Vietnam War."

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References

  1. 1 2 Schmitz, David F. The United States and Right-Wing Dictatorships, 1965–1989. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-86133-0. p. 121.
  2. ↑ Kutler, Stanley I. (1996). Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. ISBN   0-13-276932-8. OCLC   32970270., p. 149.
  3. ↑ Summers Jr., Harry G. (1985). The Vietnam War Almanac. New York: Random House. ISBN   0-7394-4290-2. OCLC   9730994., p. 237.
  4. ↑ Summers, p. 208.
  5. ↑ Summers, p. 329.
  6. ↑ Kutler, p. 203.
  7. ↑ Olson, James S. (2008). In Country: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. New York: Metro Books. ISBN   978-1-4351-1184-4. OCLC   317495523., p. 151.
  8. ↑ Summers, p. 132.
  9. ↑ "Special Foreign Assistance Act of 1971 - P.L. 91-652" (PDF). 84 Stat. 1942. Legis★Works. January 5, 1971.
  10. ↑ Olson, p. 151.
  11. ↑ Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Richard Nixon: "Letter to Senator Hugh Scott About a Proposed Amendment to the Foreign Military Sales Bill.," June 4, 1970". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara.
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