A Victory

The Constitution provides only that the Senate shall advise and consent on the President's conduct of foreign affairs, but it is not easy for Congress thus to restrict itself. Lately, to an extraordinary degree, Congress has tried to take a hand not merely in the setting of goals, or the examination of Administration policy, but in the tactical conduct of foreign affairs. The results have been alarming.

Eight months ago, Congress banned all sales of arms to America's NATO ally, Turkey. The official reason was that Turkey had illegally used U.S. weapons in the 1974 invasion of Cyprus, and a number of Congressmen argued that the ban would pressure the Turks into negotiating a compromise. But there were several other reasons for the vote, including strong anti-Turkish lobbying by Greek Americans and a feeling that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had both mishandled the Cyprus crisis and failed to show sufficient deference to Congress.

The only results of the congressional action: a Cyprus settlement became more remote than ever, and Ankara brusquely suspended operations at two dozen U.S. military and intelligence-gathering facilities.

For months the Administration has been pressuring Congress to lift the ban.

Last week, as the issue headed toward a new vote, President Ford himself telephoned several wavering legislators.

House Republican Whip Robert Michel provided a private airplane so that five friendly Congressmen could still make a key meeting out of town. The House finally voted, 237 to 176, to end the ban.

The Senate took about one minute to vote its own approval of the measure.

It was the Administration's first foreign policy success with Congress in months, and it is likely to be supplemented this week if, barring last-minute hitches, the Senate approves Kissinger's Sinai agreement. Yet even here the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asserted itself by ignoring Kissinger's pleas and releasing classified documents of the accord (see THE WORLD). The crisis between Congress and the White House over who conducts foreign policy is far from over.

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