Congress And The Cold War

by Robert David Johnson

• ISBN13: 9780521528856
• ISBN10: 0521528852
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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 U.S. 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.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations Used in the Text	vii
Acknowledgments	ix
Prologue	xiii
Archives Consulted	xxvii
Constructing a Bipartisan Foreign Policy	1	(34)
Legislative Power and the Congressional Right	35	(34)
Redefining Congressional Power	69	(36)
The Consequences of Vietnam	105	(39)
The Transformation of Stuart Symington	144	(46)
The New Internationalists' Congress	190	(52)
The Triumph of the Armed Services Committee	242	(45)
Appendix A The Foreign Aid Revolt of 1963	287	(6)
Appendix B The Senate and U.S. Involvement in Southeast Asia, 1970--1974	293	(7)
Appendix C The Senate of the New Internationalists, 1973--1976	300	(11)
Appendix D The House and the End of the Cold War, 1980--1985	311	(16)
Index	327