The Doves Draw Blood

The once lonely band of congressional opponents to the war has grown over the years until the group now threatens to become a majority. That was made clear in a series of votes last week. Inching ever closer to a cease-and-desist order to the President, both the Senate and the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed antiwar measures. It was enough of a setback to cause Nixon to denounce his critics more vigorously than ever for encouraging the North Vietnamese to fight on. "We would hope," he said at his press conference, "that public figures in their comments will not do anything to undercut the negotiations, that Congress in its actions will not in effect give a message to the enemy: 'Don't negotiate with the present Administration. Wait for us. We will give you what you want in South Viet Nam.' "

No Power. The Republican Senate leaders were confident they had the votes to stop an end-the-war amendment from being tacked on to the foreign military aid bill. Their judgment seemed to be upheld when Majority Leader Mike Mansfield's amendment calling for U.S. troop withdrawal from Viet Nam by October was voted down 49-44. Then an even more dovish amendment was offered by Republican Senator John Sherman Cooper. It authorized further funds for Indochina only for the purpose of withdrawing all American troops in four months. At best, the amendment would have commanded 40 votes.

But plans were upset when Republican Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts unexpectedly rose to propose an amendment to the amendment. It linked the release of the prisoners of war to the troop withdrawal. A floor debate followed that, rare in Congress these days, actually influenced votes. Mississippi's John Stennis made the standard defense of current policy. "Congress has no negotiating power," he said. "That power rests with the President." But that is precisely the argument the Senate is tired of hearing, considering how much of its powers have slipped away to the President. Retorted Cooper: "If we accept this argument for all time, we will have placed upon ourselves a condition, a prohibition that would forbid us from ever exercising our constitutional responsibility."

The Brooke amendment carried.

Although Cooper then voted against his own amendment because he disliked the Brooke addition, it too passed, 49-46. "I hadn't realized the votes were there for something stronger than my own approach," said Mansfield. "It was a better amendment."

The Republican leaders were equally surprised. They adopted what Senator Robert Dole called a "rearguard strategy." They decided to vote against the military aid bill, which was killed, 48-42. Curiously enough, such Senate doves as Mansfield and William Fulbright voted against it because they object to giving any military assistance to foreign countries.

But victory was not especially sweet for the Administration, since more Senators than ever seem to be wavering in their support of the President--Southerners included. Said South Carolina's Fritz Hollings: "We're reaching the point where about 33,000 Americans are in Viet Nam and only 1,000 are combat troops. There's no purpose to leaving all those eaters and sleepers and suppliers and what have you. They're not fighting, just getting into trouble." Even Dole, who is also the Republican National Committee Chairman, admitted that there is a "feeling in the Senate that we have to do something, even if it's wrong."

No sooner had they recovered from the Senate rebuke than Administration forces faced a rebellion in the House. The once reliably hawkish Foreign Affairs Committee voted 18-17 to attach an antiwar amendment to a foreign aid bill. Less demanding than the Senate's, it made troop withdrawal conditional upon release of the P.O.W.s and a ceasefire. It carried, not because of any new conversions on the committee, but because several Administration supporters were absent.

Still, it was the first time any House committee had approved an antiwar provision. The vote on the floor promises to be close. Even closer is the other race: whether the President will be able to bring Hanoi to agree to a truce before he is forced to make one sooner than he wants to, by Congress. The high-water mark of congressional resistance to any continuation of the war is slowly but perceptibly rising.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.