Monday, October 18, 2004
- MAJOR ISSUES IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Lecturer: E.F van de Bilt
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr: The Imperial Presidency (New York: Mariner Books, 2004, 589 pages -- first edition 1973.)
Reviewed by Jaime & William (Part II)
Trumped up Truman
. April 1952: The US Government seizes operation of the steel mills.
. The Steel Industry sues the government.
. The Supreme Court rules that the steel seizure was unconstitutional.
Eisenhower's Information Controls
. "It is essential to efficient and effective administration that employees in the executive branch be in a position to be completely candid in advising with each other on official matters. " Therefore "it is not in the public interest that any of their conversations or communications or any documents or reproductions concerning such advise be disclosed."
. Schlesinger contends that the historical rule was disclosure with exceptions, but Eisenhower's administration made it denial with exceptions.
. Between June 1955 and June 1960 there are at least 44 instances when people used Eisenhower's directive. This is more than in the first century of American history.
Advanced Authorization?
. In 1955 Eisenhower requested a joint resolution to cover possible military action in defense of fishermen and territory around Formosa.
. He claimed that some of the actions which may be required of him in Formosa would be inherent in the authority of the Commander in Chief, but Congressional ratification would publicly establish that authority.
. The Formosa Resolution ordered no specific action and named no enemy except as the President might thereafter decide. Rather, it committed Congress to the approval of hostilities without knowledge of the specific situation in which they would begin.
Further Expansion of Presidential Power by Eisenhower
. Eisenhower most effectively deprived Congress a voice in foreign policy by giving so much power to the CIA, which was entirely out of Congressional reach.
. "The CIA helped to overthrow governments in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954), failed to do so in Indonesia (1958), helped to install governments in Egypt (1954) and Laos (1959), organized an expedition of Cuban refugees against the Castro regime (1960-1961) and engaged in a multitude of lesser experiments in subvention and subversion."
JFK's Success
. "For the missile crisis was less unique in the post-war years in that it really combined all those pressures of threat, secrecy, and time that the foreign policy establishment had claimed as characteristic of decisions in the nuclear age. Where the threat was less grave, the need for secrecy less urgent, the time for debate less restricted – i.e., in all other cases – the argument for independent and unilateral presidential action was notably less compelling."
Lyndon B. Johnson
. In the spring of 1965, Johnson sent 22,000 troops into the Dominican Republic, without Congressional consent.
. The real reason was that "we don't propose to sit here in our rocking chair with our hands folded and let the communists set up any government in the Western Hemisphere."
Vietnam
. In early 1965, Johnson declares the Americanizaiton of the Vietnam War. He sends troops for the first time into the South, and begins regularly bombing the North.
. What Kennedy had called ‘their war’ had become ‘our war.’
. Unlike Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy, Johnson was sending troops into immediate combat. . . No U.N. resolution had been made, nor had there been invasion across frontiers, and unlike Cuba, there was no emergency threat to the US.
. "If this decision was not for Congress under the Constitution, then no decision of any consequence in matters of war and peace is left to Congress."
. August 1964: Tonkin-Gulf Resolution
WAKE UP… IT’S ABOUT TO GET GOOD!!!!
Psychology of Richard M. Nixon
. Schlesinger writes, on FDR and Kennedy, "No one, if he wished it, could see a greater variety of people than the President or consult a wider range of opinion or tap more diversified sources of knowledge."
. Unfortunately Nixon was not this type of President. He was more of a personal isolationist and he began to think of Presidential power not only as inherent but as exclusive.
. Nixon viewed everything as a battle. "I believe in the battle, whether it’s the battle of a campaign or the battle of this office… it’s always there wherever you go. I, perhaps, carry it more than others because that’s my way."
. Tom Charles Huston who served for a year as Domestic Security Planner says Nixon "abhors confrontations, most particularly those based on philosophical convictions."
. In 1972 Nixon had 48 personal assistants. White House payroll had grown from 266 in 1954 to 600 in 1971. The executive office had grown from 1175 in 1954 to 1664 in Kennedy’s last year, to 5395 under Nixon in 1971. In the first Nixon term the operating cost of the executive office rose from $31 million to $71 million. The important point here is the centralization of substantive operations by the White House.
. White House aids were often very powerful figures. Aids had much more influence and control than even cabinet members. Unlike members of the cabinet they were not subject to confirmation by the Senate or interrogation by members of Congress.
Nixon's Press
. Truman said, "When I was President I felt that I always learned more about what was on the minds of the people from the reporters questions than they could possibly learn from me."
. Under Nixon, the press conference practically disappeared. In his first term he held 28 press conferences, the same number FDR held in his first three months in office.
. The press conference, which to many Presidents was a way to gain power, was basically eliminated by Nixon. "…The whole process of exposure, scrutiny, challenge and accountability evidently exacted too heavy a psychic toll."
. Rather, Nixon chose to address the public on prime time television, where he felt protected.
Impoundment and the Pocket Veto
. Impoundment enables the White House to modify, reshape or nullify completely laws passed by the legislative branch.
. By 1973 Nixon’s impoundments had affected over 100 federal programs and reached the level of about $15 billion which was between 17% and 20% of controllable funds.
. The Senate passes the Family Practice of Medicine Act with a vote of 64-1. It passes with a vote of 345-2 in the House. However, Nixon didn’t want to sign it, and knowing that Congress would pass the bill over his veto, he did a pocket veto when they went home for Christmas for three days.
DENYING INFORMATION TO CONGRESS
. "Only the President may invoke executive privilege but just about any of his subordinates may exercise it… they simply do not employ the forbidden words." (Nixon)
. In March of 1973 Nixon said that past as well as present membership of White House Staff conferred immunity against appearances before Congressional committees. This was referred to as eternal privilege.
. In May of the same year he extended the doctrine so that it not only apply to Congress but to questions asked by Grand Juries or the FBI.
. It also extended to "Presidential papers," not just to people.
. By 1972, the cost of protecting classified materials was more than $60 million per year. There were 20 million classified documents in the defense security system of which less than half of a percent actually contained information qualifying even for the lowest defense classification under executive order 10501. "Newspaper clippings were classified; information in the public domain was classified; and, when one member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote another saying that too many undeserving papers were being stamped top secret, his note itself was stamped top secret."
Powers Derived From Secrecy
. There are three powers derived from secrecy… the power to withhold, the power to leak, and the power to lie.
. Power to withhold… "if you only knew what we know" is an effective way to defend the national security monopoly and prevent democratic control of foreign policy
. Power to leak… means the power to tell the people what it served the government’s purpose that they should know.
. Power to withhold and leak lead to the power to lie… lying was easy when finding the truth was so hard.
THE PLOT THICKENS…
Symington Committee
. In 1930, the US made 25 treaties and 9 executive agreements. The Nixon administration, up to May 1, 1972, had made 71 treaties and 608 executive agreements.
. In response to the increasing number of executive agreements, the Symington Committee was created in 1969 to investigate US security agreements and commitments abroad.
Symington Findings
. In 1962, under Johnson, a declaration was made to protect Thailand from communist aggression (this much was known).
. Seven air bases, seven generals and 32,000 soldiers, without Congressional authorization OR knowledge, were in Thailand.
. Congress thought that American bombing in Laos was directed at North Vietnamese troops on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
. However, the executive branch had been waging a separate and secret war in support of the Vientiane government against the Pathet Lao in Northern Laos since 1964.
Since 1953 the US had been subsidizing the Ethiopian army.
. Congress did not know that Eisenhower had secretly assured that we would protect Ethiopia. With American aid their army grew to 40,000. The Somali, their alleged threat, had an army of roughly 2,000.
. Since 1953 the United States army had bases in Spain in order to protect the Spanish from communism.
. Congress did not know that there were several thousand US paratroopers flown down from Germany to train, not for foreign invasion, but for a hypothetical internal uprising of anti-Franco Spaniards.
. The Symington Committee had at first received cooperation about locating nuclear weapons abroad from US representatives overseas. However during the investigation, the executive branch, under Nixon, forbade all discussion of the nuclear question.
. The Symington Committee summarized what it believed to be the current executive practice as "maximize commitment in secret discussions with foreign governments; then minimize the risk of commitments in statements made to the American public."
Reigning in the Executive Agreement
. In response to this, in 1972 Congress passed a bill requiring all executive agreements to be transmitted to the Senate and the House within 60 days of their negotiation. Agreements deemed too sensitive for disclosure would go to the foreign relations committee only.
Paranoid Nixon
. In a broad request to the intelligence community "he authorized system of burglary, wiretapping, bugging, mail covers, secret agents, and political blackmail in defiance of the laws and the constitution."
. Nixon then set up his own private outfit (known as the plumbers, since they were supposed to "stop leaks") within the White House which acted faithfully in the plan’s spirit.
. Nixon said "that as a matter of first priority the unit should find out all it could about Mr. Ellsberg’s associates and motives… I did impress on Mr. Crow (head plumber) the vital importance to the national security of his assignment."
. Another mission of the plumbers was to compile "an accurate record of events related to the Vietnam War."
. "I would remind all concerned that the way we got into Vietnam was through overthrowing Diem, and the complicity in the murder of Diem." (Nixon)
In reference to the actions of his plumbers, Nixon said "it was and is important that many of the matters worked on by the special investigations unit not be publicly disclosed because disclosure would unquestionably damage the national security."
Watergate
. June 17, 1972: Frank Wills, a 24 year old security guard noticed tape over the latches of two doors on the bottom level of the Watergate Hotel. Wills called the police, and the burglars were arrested while breaking into the office of the Democratic National Committee.
. Watergate was only a symptom of a much larger problem. Its importance was in the way it brought those symptoms to the surface and got people thinking about the question of Presidential power.
. Nixon's appointees had engaged, "…at the very least, in burglary; in forgery; in illegal wiretapping; in illegal electronic surveillance; in perjury; in subordination of perjury; in obstruction of justice; in destruction of evidence; in tampering with witnesses; in misprision of felony; in bribery (of the Watergate defendants); in acceptance of bribes (from Vesco and the ITT); in conspiracy to involve government agencies (the FBI, the CIA, the Secret Service, the IRS, the Securities and Exchange Commission) in illegal action."
. The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it can punish the man without punishing the office. Watergate was potentially the best thing to have happened to the Presidency in a long time. If the trails were followed to their end it would be many years before another White House staff would dare take the liberties with the constitution and the laws that the Nixon White House had taken.
The War Against the Media
. Nixon orders phones of offending newspaper men to be wire tapped.
. Department of Justice tried to subpoena reporters’ notebooks and tapes.
. Acting head of the FBI complained that American journalists threatened to destroy respect for established institutions.
. A White House assistant warned networks that they might be subject to anti-trust prosecution if they did not "move conservatives and people with a viewpoint of middle America on to the networks."
. The head of the White House Office of Telecommunications denounced what he called ideologues and "station managers and network officials who fail to correct imbalance or consistent bias from the networks—or who acquiesce by silence—can only be considered willing participants, to be held fully accountable… at license renewal time."
. When the Washington Post was working on the Watergate story the Nixon campaign challenged the renewal of licenses for two Florida television stations owned by the Post, thereby producing a loss of 25% of the market value of Post stocks in two weeks.
Judicial Response
. The Supreme Court went back and forth on the issue of the constitutionality of the Vietnam War.
. No judge backed the war based on the inherent powers of a President. Even the theory that Congress, by voting for appropriations, ratified the war was left up for argument.
. "Every military appropriation bill from October 1970 and beyond contained a proviso expressly forbidding military support for the government of Cambodia except in connection with the withdrawal of American troops from Southeast Asia and the release of the POWs – conditions fulfilled by March 1973."
. The same Judge Judd who had declared Vietnam legal, held the Presidential war in Cambodia unconstitutional.
. "At any concrete historical point, the constitutional balance was too much at the mercy of fluctuating intangibles of circumstance, judgment, opinion, and prophesy to permit the Court to lay down a mechanical standard."
Congressional Response
. Congress begins using their power to appropriate in order to get information they desire.
. Pass anti-impoundment legislation.
. Pass a bill to prevent Presidential abuse of the pocket veto.
. Congress felt that it had to find a way to restrain Presidential war power.
On the War-Power
. Create some Congressional control over the deployment of armed forces outside the US
. "The President could act until Congress acted; but, if Congress acted, its legislation would supersede an otherwise valid order of the president.
. Schlesinger also asserts that Congress, in its annual encounter with the defense budget, should review military man power in the same way it reviews the procurement of military weapons, especially because man power was consuming more than half of the budget.
. Create a Presidential obligation to report immediately to Congress with full information and justification whenever he sent troops into battle and to keep on reporting so long as the hostilities continued
. Create a declaration by Congress of its right at any point to terminate such military action by concurrent resolution.
Schlesinger's Recommendations to Future Presidents
. Reduction in the size and power of White House staff.
. Restoration of the access and prestige of the executive departments.
. He must not make himself the prisoner of a single information system.
. The cabinet serves Presidents best when it contains strong and independent men. Strong enough to make permanent government responsive to Presidential policy and independent enough to carry honest dissents into the oval office.
. Rid themselves of honest misconceptions about the nature and power of their office.
. Do something to revive the Department of State.
. Admit to Congress genuine, if only junior partnership in the foreign policy process.
. The acceptance of a larger accountability should not be taken by future presidents as a vexatious and wasteful interruption of their serious work. Embrace it as your duty. This is the primary challenge of the Presidency.
The End
Discussion Points
- It is clear that Schlesinger is a Democrat, and that this book had been completed before even Nixon knew that he would have to resign. Does this book strike anyone as one of those politically motivated books that come out during a Presidency, about that Presidency? Does the research and thesis hold up to higher standards?
- Post-WWII, Presidential power expanded greatly as national-security became an important issue. Does the Bush administration find themselves with the same leeway of cold war times?Since 9-11, do they have more? What would Schlesinger think?
- Debate is the essence of Democracy, but the Bush administration has managed to infer that in the presence of war debate must be suspended and it is unpatriotically to challenge Presidential judgment. Does a democratic nation have a moral obligation to support the government in a time of war? Historically, have Americans abstained from debate, and dissent as they have during the current war? Why or why not?
Lecturer: E.F van de Bilt
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr: The Imperial Presidency (New York: Mariner Books, 2004, 589 pages -- first edition 1973.)
Reviewed by Jaime & William (Part II)
Trumped up Truman
. April 1952: The US Government seizes operation of the steel mills.
. The Steel Industry sues the government.
. The Supreme Court rules that the steel seizure was unconstitutional.
Eisenhower's Information Controls
. "It is essential to efficient and effective administration that employees in the executive branch be in a position to be completely candid in advising with each other on official matters. " Therefore "it is not in the public interest that any of their conversations or communications or any documents or reproductions concerning such advise be disclosed."
. Schlesinger contends that the historical rule was disclosure with exceptions, but Eisenhower's administration made it denial with exceptions.
. Between June 1955 and June 1960 there are at least 44 instances when people used Eisenhower's directive. This is more than in the first century of American history.
Advanced Authorization?
. In 1955 Eisenhower requested a joint resolution to cover possible military action in defense of fishermen and territory around Formosa.
. He claimed that some of the actions which may be required of him in Formosa would be inherent in the authority of the Commander in Chief, but Congressional ratification would publicly establish that authority.
. The Formosa Resolution ordered no specific action and named no enemy except as the President might thereafter decide. Rather, it committed Congress to the approval of hostilities without knowledge of the specific situation in which they would begin.
Further Expansion of Presidential Power by Eisenhower
. Eisenhower most effectively deprived Congress a voice in foreign policy by giving so much power to the CIA, which was entirely out of Congressional reach.
. "The CIA helped to overthrow governments in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954), failed to do so in Indonesia (1958), helped to install governments in Egypt (1954) and Laos (1959), organized an expedition of Cuban refugees against the Castro regime (1960-1961) and engaged in a multitude of lesser experiments in subvention and subversion."
JFK's Success
. "For the missile crisis was less unique in the post-war years in that it really combined all those pressures of threat, secrecy, and time that the foreign policy establishment had claimed as characteristic of decisions in the nuclear age. Where the threat was less grave, the need for secrecy less urgent, the time for debate less restricted – i.e., in all other cases – the argument for independent and unilateral presidential action was notably less compelling."
Lyndon B. Johnson
. In the spring of 1965, Johnson sent 22,000 troops into the Dominican Republic, without Congressional consent.
. The real reason was that "we don't propose to sit here in our rocking chair with our hands folded and let the communists set up any government in the Western Hemisphere."
Vietnam
. In early 1965, Johnson declares the Americanizaiton of the Vietnam War. He sends troops for the first time into the South, and begins regularly bombing the North.
. What Kennedy had called ‘their war’ had become ‘our war.’
. Unlike Roosevelt, Truman, and Kennedy, Johnson was sending troops into immediate combat. . . No U.N. resolution had been made, nor had there been invasion across frontiers, and unlike Cuba, there was no emergency threat to the US.
. "If this decision was not for Congress under the Constitution, then no decision of any consequence in matters of war and peace is left to Congress."
. August 1964: Tonkin-Gulf Resolution
WAKE UP… IT’S ABOUT TO GET GOOD!!!!
Psychology of Richard M. Nixon
. Schlesinger writes, on FDR and Kennedy, "No one, if he wished it, could see a greater variety of people than the President or consult a wider range of opinion or tap more diversified sources of knowledge."
. Unfortunately Nixon was not this type of President. He was more of a personal isolationist and he began to think of Presidential power not only as inherent but as exclusive.
. Nixon viewed everything as a battle. "I believe in the battle, whether it’s the battle of a campaign or the battle of this office… it’s always there wherever you go. I, perhaps, carry it more than others because that’s my way."
. Tom Charles Huston who served for a year as Domestic Security Planner says Nixon "abhors confrontations, most particularly those based on philosophical convictions."
. In 1972 Nixon had 48 personal assistants. White House payroll had grown from 266 in 1954 to 600 in 1971. The executive office had grown from 1175 in 1954 to 1664 in Kennedy’s last year, to 5395 under Nixon in 1971. In the first Nixon term the operating cost of the executive office rose from $31 million to $71 million. The important point here is the centralization of substantive operations by the White House.
. White House aids were often very powerful figures. Aids had much more influence and control than even cabinet members. Unlike members of the cabinet they were not subject to confirmation by the Senate or interrogation by members of Congress.
Nixon's Press
. Truman said, "When I was President I felt that I always learned more about what was on the minds of the people from the reporters questions than they could possibly learn from me."
. Under Nixon, the press conference practically disappeared. In his first term he held 28 press conferences, the same number FDR held in his first three months in office.
. The press conference, which to many Presidents was a way to gain power, was basically eliminated by Nixon. "…The whole process of exposure, scrutiny, challenge and accountability evidently exacted too heavy a psychic toll."
. Rather, Nixon chose to address the public on prime time television, where he felt protected.
Impoundment and the Pocket Veto
. Impoundment enables the White House to modify, reshape or nullify completely laws passed by the legislative branch.
. By 1973 Nixon’s impoundments had affected over 100 federal programs and reached the level of about $15 billion which was between 17% and 20% of controllable funds.
. The Senate passes the Family Practice of Medicine Act with a vote of 64-1. It passes with a vote of 345-2 in the House. However, Nixon didn’t want to sign it, and knowing that Congress would pass the bill over his veto, he did a pocket veto when they went home for Christmas for three days.
DENYING INFORMATION TO CONGRESS
. "Only the President may invoke executive privilege but just about any of his subordinates may exercise it… they simply do not employ the forbidden words." (Nixon)
. In March of 1973 Nixon said that past as well as present membership of White House Staff conferred immunity against appearances before Congressional committees. This was referred to as eternal privilege.
. In May of the same year he extended the doctrine so that it not only apply to Congress but to questions asked by Grand Juries or the FBI.
. It also extended to "Presidential papers," not just to people.
. By 1972, the cost of protecting classified materials was more than $60 million per year. There were 20 million classified documents in the defense security system of which less than half of a percent actually contained information qualifying even for the lowest defense classification under executive order 10501. "Newspaper clippings were classified; information in the public domain was classified; and, when one member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote another saying that too many undeserving papers were being stamped top secret, his note itself was stamped top secret."
Powers Derived From Secrecy
. There are three powers derived from secrecy… the power to withhold, the power to leak, and the power to lie.
. Power to withhold… "if you only knew what we know" is an effective way to defend the national security monopoly and prevent democratic control of foreign policy
. Power to leak… means the power to tell the people what it served the government’s purpose that they should know.
. Power to withhold and leak lead to the power to lie… lying was easy when finding the truth was so hard.
THE PLOT THICKENS…
Symington Committee
. In 1930, the US made 25 treaties and 9 executive agreements. The Nixon administration, up to May 1, 1972, had made 71 treaties and 608 executive agreements.
. In response to the increasing number of executive agreements, the Symington Committee was created in 1969 to investigate US security agreements and commitments abroad.
Symington Findings
. In 1962, under Johnson, a declaration was made to protect Thailand from communist aggression (this much was known).
. Seven air bases, seven generals and 32,000 soldiers, without Congressional authorization OR knowledge, were in Thailand.
. Congress thought that American bombing in Laos was directed at North Vietnamese troops on the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
. However, the executive branch had been waging a separate and secret war in support of the Vientiane government against the Pathet Lao in Northern Laos since 1964.
Since 1953 the US had been subsidizing the Ethiopian army.
. Congress did not know that Eisenhower had secretly assured that we would protect Ethiopia. With American aid their army grew to 40,000. The Somali, their alleged threat, had an army of roughly 2,000.
. Since 1953 the United States army had bases in Spain in order to protect the Spanish from communism.
. Congress did not know that there were several thousand US paratroopers flown down from Germany to train, not for foreign invasion, but for a hypothetical internal uprising of anti-Franco Spaniards.
. The Symington Committee had at first received cooperation about locating nuclear weapons abroad from US representatives overseas. However during the investigation, the executive branch, under Nixon, forbade all discussion of the nuclear question.
. The Symington Committee summarized what it believed to be the current executive practice as "maximize commitment in secret discussions with foreign governments; then minimize the risk of commitments in statements made to the American public."
Reigning in the Executive Agreement
. In response to this, in 1972 Congress passed a bill requiring all executive agreements to be transmitted to the Senate and the House within 60 days of their negotiation. Agreements deemed too sensitive for disclosure would go to the foreign relations committee only.
Paranoid Nixon
. In a broad request to the intelligence community "he authorized system of burglary, wiretapping, bugging, mail covers, secret agents, and political blackmail in defiance of the laws and the constitution."
. Nixon then set up his own private outfit (known as the plumbers, since they were supposed to "stop leaks") within the White House which acted faithfully in the plan’s spirit.
. Nixon said "that as a matter of first priority the unit should find out all it could about Mr. Ellsberg’s associates and motives… I did impress on Mr. Crow (head plumber) the vital importance to the national security of his assignment."
. Another mission of the plumbers was to compile "an accurate record of events related to the Vietnam War."
. "I would remind all concerned that the way we got into Vietnam was through overthrowing Diem, and the complicity in the murder of Diem." (Nixon)
In reference to the actions of his plumbers, Nixon said "it was and is important that many of the matters worked on by the special investigations unit not be publicly disclosed because disclosure would unquestionably damage the national security."
Watergate
. June 17, 1972: Frank Wills, a 24 year old security guard noticed tape over the latches of two doors on the bottom level of the Watergate Hotel. Wills called the police, and the burglars were arrested while breaking into the office of the Democratic National Committee.
. Watergate was only a symptom of a much larger problem. Its importance was in the way it brought those symptoms to the surface and got people thinking about the question of Presidential power.
. Nixon's appointees had engaged, "…at the very least, in burglary; in forgery; in illegal wiretapping; in illegal electronic surveillance; in perjury; in subordination of perjury; in obstruction of justice; in destruction of evidence; in tampering with witnesses; in misprision of felony; in bribery (of the Watergate defendants); in acceptance of bribes (from Vesco and the ITT); in conspiracy to involve government agencies (the FBI, the CIA, the Secret Service, the IRS, the Securities and Exchange Commission) in illegal action."
. The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it can punish the man without punishing the office. Watergate was potentially the best thing to have happened to the Presidency in a long time. If the trails were followed to their end it would be many years before another White House staff would dare take the liberties with the constitution and the laws that the Nixon White House had taken.
The War Against the Media
. Nixon orders phones of offending newspaper men to be wire tapped.
. Department of Justice tried to subpoena reporters’ notebooks and tapes.
. Acting head of the FBI complained that American journalists threatened to destroy respect for established institutions.
. A White House assistant warned networks that they might be subject to anti-trust prosecution if they did not "move conservatives and people with a viewpoint of middle America on to the networks."
. The head of the White House Office of Telecommunications denounced what he called ideologues and "station managers and network officials who fail to correct imbalance or consistent bias from the networks—or who acquiesce by silence—can only be considered willing participants, to be held fully accountable… at license renewal time."
. When the Washington Post was working on the Watergate story the Nixon campaign challenged the renewal of licenses for two Florida television stations owned by the Post, thereby producing a loss of 25% of the market value of Post stocks in two weeks.
Judicial Response
. The Supreme Court went back and forth on the issue of the constitutionality of the Vietnam War.
. No judge backed the war based on the inherent powers of a President. Even the theory that Congress, by voting for appropriations, ratified the war was left up for argument.
. "Every military appropriation bill from October 1970 and beyond contained a proviso expressly forbidding military support for the government of Cambodia except in connection with the withdrawal of American troops from Southeast Asia and the release of the POWs – conditions fulfilled by March 1973."
. The same Judge Judd who had declared Vietnam legal, held the Presidential war in Cambodia unconstitutional.
. "At any concrete historical point, the constitutional balance was too much at the mercy of fluctuating intangibles of circumstance, judgment, opinion, and prophesy to permit the Court to lay down a mechanical standard."
Congressional Response
. Congress begins using their power to appropriate in order to get information they desire.
. Pass anti-impoundment legislation.
. Pass a bill to prevent Presidential abuse of the pocket veto.
. Congress felt that it had to find a way to restrain Presidential war power.
On the War-Power
. Create some Congressional control over the deployment of armed forces outside the US
. "The President could act until Congress acted; but, if Congress acted, its legislation would supersede an otherwise valid order of the president.
. Schlesinger also asserts that Congress, in its annual encounter with the defense budget, should review military man power in the same way it reviews the procurement of military weapons, especially because man power was consuming more than half of the budget.
. Create a Presidential obligation to report immediately to Congress with full information and justification whenever he sent troops into battle and to keep on reporting so long as the hostilities continued
. Create a declaration by Congress of its right at any point to terminate such military action by concurrent resolution.
Schlesinger's Recommendations to Future Presidents
. Reduction in the size and power of White House staff.
. Restoration of the access and prestige of the executive departments.
. He must not make himself the prisoner of a single information system.
. The cabinet serves Presidents best when it contains strong and independent men. Strong enough to make permanent government responsive to Presidential policy and independent enough to carry honest dissents into the oval office.
. Rid themselves of honest misconceptions about the nature and power of their office.
. Do something to revive the Department of State.
. Admit to Congress genuine, if only junior partnership in the foreign policy process.
. The acceptance of a larger accountability should not be taken by future presidents as a vexatious and wasteful interruption of their serious work. Embrace it as your duty. This is the primary challenge of the Presidency.
The End
Discussion Points
- It is clear that Schlesinger is a Democrat, and that this book had been completed before even Nixon knew that he would have to resign. Does this book strike anyone as one of those politically motivated books that come out during a Presidency, about that Presidency? Does the research and thesis hold up to higher standards?
- Post-WWII, Presidential power expanded greatly as national-security became an important issue. Does the Bush administration find themselves with the same leeway of cold war times?Since 9-11, do they have more? What would Schlesinger think?
- Debate is the essence of Democracy, but the Bush administration has managed to infer that in the presence of war debate must be suspended and it is unpatriotically to challenge Presidential judgment. Does a democratic nation have a moral obligation to support the government in a time of war? Historically, have Americans abstained from debate, and dissent as they have during the current war? Why or why not?
# posted by Agustin @ 2:40 PM 
