"John?] "
wrote:
In article , Norminn
wrote:
clipped
True, the executive has gotten around the limitation that "only
congress can
declare war" by declaring things to be "police actions" instead;
Truman did
this for Korea, and Johnson did this for Viet Nam; interestingly
enough,
both were Democrats. By the time the Gulf War rolled around, people
were
clipped
'Twas Kennedy who sent "advisors" to VN, around 1962 (and eight years
after France got it's a-- kicked out).
Earlier than that...
The US Military Assistance Advisory Group(MAAG) assumed responsibility
for training ARVN military forces on April 26, 1956. The 1st Special
Forces Group(ABN) opened a commando training center in Nha Trang in
1957. The first US casualties were 13 wounded in terrorist bombings in
Saigon on 22 October 1957. The first two American military personnel
killed died on 8 July 1959.
Whom did you say was President...?
Ok, let's get down to picking real nits.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001292.html First advisors were sent to
Viet Nam in 1950 by President Truman, to aid the French. Later, Eisenhower
increased the number of advisors somewhat; in 1960-63, Kennedy increased the
number of military advisors "from 900 to 15,000". That's an average of more
than 3,500 advisors per year.
Of course, the Gulf of Tonkin resolution wasn't passed until 1964, when
Johnson was the president; which allowed him to begin large-scale fighting.
Which all goes to support my original statement, that the "border" between
using troops legitimately in a non-war situation, and a true war situation
(requiring a declaration of war passed by the Congress), border "is hard to
define". Which I followed up by asking, "did Clinton need Congress to
declare war before sending troops into Bosnia? Yugoslavia?" And, I guess
you could add, did Truman need a declaration of war to send advisors to Viet
Nam? What about Eisenhower?
Where would you say the border between "non-war deployment of troops" and
"war" truly is? When does the president need a Congressional declaration,
and when does he not?
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