The day after the combined Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees voted to reword the resolution granting President Eisenhower the authority he wants to act in the Middle East, New Jersey’s Republican H. Alexander Smith met Montana’s Democrat Mike Mansfield in the offices of the Foreign Relations Committee. “Mike,” said Smith, with obvious exasperation, “just what did you accomplish with your amendment?”
“Alex,” countered Mansfield solemnly, “we did the President a favor. We did this”—he grasped Smith’s right arm and raised it overhead. “We reaffirmed and reasserted the President’s authority as Commander in Chief.”
Alex Smith looked odd as Mike Mansfield walked away leaving him with arm upraised, but Mansfield’s claim was odder. Yet there was some truth in it: paradoxically, Mansfield and his fellow Democrats had managed to deny Ike a request by upholding presidential powers.
Whirlpool of Emotions. As drafted by Ike and Secretary of State Dulles, the Middle East resolution “authorized” the President to: 1) “employ the armed forces of the U.S. as he deems necessary” to defend nations requesting U.S. military help against Communist armed aggression, and 2) use up to $200 million of already appropriated funds for economic and military aid in the Middle East. The House speedily passed this version 355 to 61, with only picayune amendments.
But in the Senate, the resolution got caught in a whirlpool of Democratic emotions: partisan zeal, dislike and distrust of Secretary of State Dulles, disillusionment with foreign aid, rankling anger at the Republicans for using the “peace” issue in last year’s campaign. For fully a month, despite Ike’s call for speed, Senate Democrats nitpicked their way through the resolution, pausing for rhetoric, savoring revenge as they harpooned Dulles at every opportunity (TIME, Jan. 28 et seq.). By last week, when the joint committee sat down to draft its version, the Democrats had made themselves look irresponsibly partisan. Then earnest, honest Mike Mansfield stepped in to the rescue.
Thorn Patch Uprooted. Democratic Whip Mansfield had gradually focused his gaze on the best issue the Democrats had: the debatable constitutionality of the word “authorized” in the first half of the resolution. Eisenhower and Dulles insisted that the word was needed to show the world that Congress stands firmly behind the President. But thoughtful Senators on both sides of the aisle began to wonder whether adoption of “authorized” might throw doubt upon the President’s implied power as Commander in Chief to use armed forces to safeguard the nation’s security. This doubt, the reasoning ran, might deter future Presidents from taking necessary action in future crises. To uproot this constitutional thorn patch, Mansfield drafted an amendment to change the wording from “he is authorized to employ the armed forces of the U.S. as he deems necessary” to “if the President determines the necessity thereof, the U.S. is prepared to use armed forces.”
In a party-line vote—15 Democrats to 13 Republicans—the committee adopted the amendment. Otherwise, the resolution passed with only minor changes, e.g., a requirement that the Administration give Congress 15 days’ notice before spending aid funds.
Display of Discipline. Oddly enough, the killing off of “authorized” came as a relief to Minority Leader William Fife Knowland. Also troubled by the constitutional issue, Republican Knowland had wrestled the pros and cons for days after the resolution was first introduced, had decided, out of loyalty to Ike and the G.O.P., to support the President’s wording. Backed up by New Hampshire’s Styles Bridges, Knowland called committee Republicans to his office, urged them to side with Ike in what had turned into a partisan fight. When it came to voting last week, the Republicans, in a rare display of discipline, held 100% firm.
But when the Democrats pushed through the Mansfield amendment, Knowland and Bridges telephoned Ike’s headquarters in Thomasville, Ga. to advise acceptance of the change. An all-out push to restore the original wording, they argued, would inevitably bring on a damaging congressional brawl. Unenthusiastically Ike said O.K., issued a statement that the Senate text seemed “intended and designed to accomplish the purposes outlined by the President.” Probable result: the Democratic version will pass both houses with the near unanimity that the President fervently wants.
Satisfying Slap. Mike Mansfield had scored a major triumph. His amendment 1) gave the Democrats something solid to show for all the nagging, 2) enabled them to get in a hard, satisfying slap at Ike and Dulles while assuming a statesmanlike stance and, incidentally, 3) justified Harry Truman’s 1950 decision to send U.S. forces into Korea without congressional authorization.
And with all this, Mansfield left the resolution basically undamaged for external consumption. It would still fulfill Ike’s purpose. To make that point unmistakably clear, the committee declared: “Let there be no doubt. Although the joint committee was sharply divided as to the proper constitutional processes, it was not divided at all as to the substantive policy announced by the President of using armed force, if necessary, to help nations in the Middle East resist overt Communist aggression.”