Congress and the Cold War

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Nov 21, 2005 - History - 346 pages
The first historical interpretation of the congressional response to the entire Cold War. Using a wide variety of sources, including several manuscript collections opened specifically for this study, the book challenges the popular and scholarly image of a weak Cold War Congress, in which the unbalanced relationship between the legislative and executive branches culminated in the escalation of the US commitment in Vietnam, which in turn paved the way for a congressional resurgence best symbolized by the passage of the War Powers Act in 1973. Instead, understanding the congressional response to the Cold War requires a more flexible conception of the congressional role in foreign policy, focused on three facets of legislative power: the use of spending measures; the internal workings of a Congress increasingly dominated by subcommittees; and the ability of individual legislators to affect foreign affairs by changing the way that policymakers and the public considered international questions.

From inside the book

Contents

Constructing a Bipartisan Foreign Policy I
1
Legislative Power and the Congressional Right
35
Redefining Congressional Power
69
The Consequences of Vietnam
105
The Transformation of Stuart Symington
144
The New Internationalists Congress
190
The Triumph of the Armed Services Committee
242
Appendix A The Foreign Aid Revolt of 1963
287
Appendix B The Senate and U S Involvement in Southeast Asia
293
The Senate of the New Internationalists 19731976
300
The House and the End of the Cold War 19801985
311
Index
327
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 112 - Chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.
Page 214 - EVEN IF HE WERE MEDIOCRE, THERE ARE A LOT OF MEDIOCRE JUDGES AND PEOPLE AND LAWYERS. THEY ARE ENTITLED TO A LITTLE REPRESENTATION, AREN'T THEY, AND A LITTLE CHANCE? WE CAN'T HAVE ALL BRANDEISES AND FRANKFURTERS AND CARDOZOS AND STUFF LIKE THAT THERE.
Page 116 - We fight because we must fight if we are to live in a world where every country can shape its own destiny, and only in such a world will our own freedom be finally secure.
Page 117 - This is not a routine appropriation. For each Member of Congress who supports this request is also voting to persist in our effort to halt Communist aggression in South Vietnam. Each is saying that the Congress and the President stand united before the world in joint determination that the independence of South Vietnam shall be preserved and Communist attack will not succeed.
Page 155 - If we have to start over again with another Adam and Eve, I want them to be Americans; and I want them on this continent and not in Europe.
Page 278 - The national security of all the Americas is at stake in Central America. If we cannot defend ourselves there, we cannot expect to prevail elsewhere. Our credibility would collapse, our alliances would crumble, and the safety of our homeland would be put in jeopardy.
Page 18 - Whereas the United Nations is not now in a position to furnish to Greece and Turkey the financial and economic assistance which is immediately required; and Whereas the furnishing of such assistance to Greece and Turkey by the United States will contribute to the freedom and independence of all members of the United Nations in conformity with the principles and purposes of the Charter...
Page 223 - Beginning in the early 19605, three independence movements - the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), and the National Union for...
Page 173 - Fiscal Year 1972 Authorization for Military Procurement, Research and Development, Construction and Real Estate Acquisition for the Safeguard ABM and Reserve Strengths, Hearings before the Senate Committee on Armed Services, 92 Cong. I sess (1971), Pt. 5; Department of Defense, "Fact Sheet

About the author (2005)

Robert David Johnson is a professor of history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He has published three books: The Peace Progressives and American Foreign Policy (1995); Ernest Gruening and the American Dissenting Tradition (1998); and 20 January 1961: The American Dream (1999). He is the editor of a fourth book: On Cultural Ground: Essays in International History (1994). Professor Johnson has published articles or essays in Diplomatic History, the Journal of Cold War Studies, Oxford Companion to American History, International History Review, and Political Science Quarterly, among others.

Bibliographic information