- Historic Sites The President, The People, And The Power To
Make War April 1970 | Volume 21, Issue 3 Lyndon Johnson knew
perfectly well that few congressmen would dare face their
constituents if, by such a vote for repeal, they undercut a
President and a Commander in Chief in the middle of a grave war
which he had entered with the insistence that it was vital to
American security and world peace. The new regional pacts and
even more the joint resolutions—inaugurated with the best of
intentions to meet contemporary circumstances—had given the
Chief Executive still more war power, and done it in a manner
that came close to caricaturing the intent of the Founding
Fathers. For they were nothing less than a means by which
Congress, with all the whereases of constitutional procedure,
duly voted itself into impotence. In 1967 President Johnson’s
Under Secretary of State, Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, appeared
before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His remarks,
reflecting the L.B.J. mood, came close to saying th