Thursday, December 5, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
17
Congress may regulate troop movements
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield says he will push for early action in the new Congress on a resolution demanding congressional approval before U.S. troops are committed to battle abroad.
In an interview, Mansfield said such a resolution would be "beneficial" to President-elect Richard M. Nixon's administration.
He predicted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has approved such a move in the past, would send the resolution to the Senate floor for debate in the first months of the 91st Congress, which meets in January.
Mansfield also forecast an expanded role for the committee in the coming months in "the making of foreign policy," noting that Nixon would have to deal with Democratic majorities in both houses.
The "national commitments" resolution he endorsed would have no legal authority but simply would express the "sense of the Senate" that any future commitment of troops to foreign soil requires "affirmative action by Congress" unless the troops were sent in defense of
the United States, its citizens or property.
The measure—the end product of the committee's frustration in trying to influence the course of the Vietnam War—won unanimous committee approval late in 1967. It climaxed a series of bitter hearings in which Johnson administration
The resolution never reached the Senate floor. Mansfield and
other leaders decided bringing it up then would only heighten tensions and contribute little to an understanding with an administration whose views were firmly fixed.
George Allen compiled a 19-7-2 record in his first two seasons as head coach of the Los Anresle Rams football team.
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