When President Johnson took office afte

r the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the U.S. military had already been involved in South Vietnam for almost two years. Military advisors were training the South Vietnamese military. The goal was to strengthen the military so that it could fight the guerrilla attacks conducted by the Vietcong as well as defend the country from the North Vietnamese Army. President Johnson viewed the war in Vietnam as an extension of the Cold War and felt it was necessary to defend South Vietnam from communism. “Communists, using force and intrigue, seek a communist-dominated world,” said President Johnson in an April 1964 Speech. In May President Johnson was presented with a new plan of action by his Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara. The plan called for increased U.S. involvement in South Vietnam in the way of air strikes and combat troops. Johnson made it clear that any action of that nature needed to be preceded by congressional endorsement. In July, Johnson and the Democratic Party’s policies came under fire from two particular individuals, Arizona Senator Barry M. Goldwater and his running mate the Representative from New York, William E. Miller. Goldwater and Miller attacked the Democrats for allowing communism to proliferate in Laos, Vietnam, Berlin, and Cuba.

Five days after President Bush’s speech before the U.N. Iraq’s Foreign Affairs Minister wrote to Kofi Annan informing him that Iraq had agreed to allow the return of U.N. weapon inspectors without conditions. In the letter, the Minister spoke of the Republic of Iraq’s willingness to follow along with the UNSC’s resolutions and was prepared to prove to the world that Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction. On the 19th of September UNMOVIC proposes a timetable for the inspections of Iraq that will take from four to six months to complete. The President, seeing another stall tactic in the making asked the U.S. Congress for authority to use all means necessary, including the use of the Armed Forces to “depose the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and to disarm the country of any weapons of mass destruction.”

The 88th Congress felt betrayed and duped when more information about the attack on the Maddox came to light. Some would later say that it was a terrible decision to give the President such authority, and the issue should have been debated more. For the 107th Congress there was a similar feeling. The biggest question on all their minds was “where are the weapons of mass destruction?” Some Congressman felt justified since they did not support the resolution, others found themselves explaining why they voted for the resolution, but were then railing against the President for using it. Yet another comment was “I didn’t know he was going to use the military.” The difference between the two Congresses is that one had time to debate the issue and therefore there was a split on whether to approve it or not, and in what form. The other Congress felt pressured by the President and the sense of patriotism in the American people and in themselves, and passed a bad resolution quickly.

On September 27th news broke that an al-Qaeda suspect in custody indicated that Saddam Hussein was allowing al-Qaeda to train in the country, and that the Iraqi regime was providing the terrorist group with chemical weapons training. President Bush presented this new information at a meeting with bipartisan lawmakers, and at the same time informed them that Saddam Hussein was seeking to build a nuclear bomb. If Saddam was able to acquire fissile material then he would be able to build a nuclear bomb within a year. The President also assured the members that if he decided to take military action against Iraq he would go before Congress and explain why diplomacy would fail to achieve the U.S.’ and U.N.’s goals.

Some topics in this essay:
Saddam Hussein, President Bush, President Johnson, North Vietnam, York Times, Vietnamese Chinese, Gulf Tonkin, Vietnam War, South Vietnam, UNSC December, president johnson, president bush, saddam hussein, gulf tonkin, weapons mass, resolution passed, weapons mass destruction, mass destruction, southeast asia, south vietnam, no-fly zones, gulf tonkin resolution, lack weapons mass, osama bin laden, mass destruction iraq,