When President Richard Nixon ordered U.S. ground troops to invade Cambodia on April 28, 1970, he waited two days before announcing the start of the invasion on national television. With domestic discontent over the Vietnam War already building, the invasion seemed like a final straw.
The news set off a wave of criticism from many who felt that the president had ignored Congress and abused his power. By November 1973, the criticism culminated in the passage of the War Powers Act. Passed over Nixon’s veto, the bill limited the scope of the commander in chief’s ability to declare war without congressional approval.
The 1973 War Powers Resolution
Although the law was an unusual challenge, presidents since have exploited loopholes in the War Powers Resolution to raise questions about executive power, particularly during emergencies.
Why did the United States invade Cambodia?
Although Cambodia was officially neutral during the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese forces transported supplies and weapons through northern Cambodia as part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which stretched from Vietnam to neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
In March 1969, Nixon began authorizing covert bombing of suspected Communist base camps and supply areas in Cambodia as part of “Operation Menu.” The New York Times On May 9, 1969, the United States made the operation public, sparking an international outcry. Cambodia was not the first neutral country to be attacked by the United States during the Vietnam War. The United States had secretly begun bombing Laos in 1964, eventually making Laos the most bombed country in the world relative to its population.
Nixon’s Secret Plan to End the Vietnam War
Cambodian Invasion (April-June 1970)
On April 28, 1970, Nixon authorized the use of U.S. ground troops in Cambodia to fight alongside South Vietnamese forces in attacks on Communist bases in the country. Recent political developments in Cambodia worked in Nixon’s favor. Prince Norodom Sihanouk, who had led Cambodia since independence from France in 1954, was ousted by the Cambodian National Assembly on March 18, 1970. Pro-American Prime Minister Lon Nol imposed a state of emergency and removed the prince from his position as head of state in what became known as the Cambodian Coup of 1970.
On May 8, 1970, Nixon held a press conference to defend the invasion of Cambodia. He argued that the invasion had extended the training period for South Vietnamese troops by six to eight months, shortening the American war and saving American lives. He promised to withdraw 150,000 American troops by the following spring. However, Vietnamization had not worked, and the American public was tired of the Vietnam War. The invasion of Cambodia marked a turning point.
Public reaction to the U.S. invasion of Cambodia
The front page of the Daily News on May 1, 1970, shows demonstrators resisting National Guard troops on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus.
Anti-war demonstrations intensified nationwide, especially on college campuses. 100,000 people gathered in Washington in protest. About 400 schools went on strike, and over 200 closed completely. On May 4, 1970, protests turned violent when National Guard troops opened fire on anti-war demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four students and wounding nine. Ten days later, two students were killed at Jackson State University. The Kent State shootings and the Jackson shootings prompted a national backlash against the invasion of Cambodia.
In Cambodia, the American bombing and invasion was used as a recruitment tool by the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian communist guerrillas who would later seize power in a brutal regime that killed more than two million people.
Congressional response to the Cambodian invasion
Article 8, Section 1 of the United States Constitution gives the United States the power to declare war. Legislature This was a deliberate departure from the British tradition of giving war powers to the King, and is the responsibility of the US government.
But the word “proclamation” has been open to interpretation over the centuries. In practice, American presidents have waged wars without Congressional approval for centuries: James Polk’s occupation of Texas in 1846 sparked the Mexican-American War, and Abraham Lincoln authorized early military action in the Civil War without seeking Congressional approval.
The Cold War saw new breaches of war-making protocols by the executive branch. “In the years before the War Powers Act was passed, Congress had become increasingly active,” says Fredric Logvall, the Lawrence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. President Harry Truman did not seek congressional approval before sending U.S. troops to Korea, and when it came to the rapidly escalating Vietnam War, Congress decided to play a larger role.
In late 1969, the Senate approved the Cooper-Church Amendment, named for Senators John Sherman Cooper (R-Ky.) and Frank Church (D-Idaho), in a historic 78-11 vote, banning U.S. combat troops or advisors from operating in Laos or Thailand. “This was really the first time since the beginning of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that Congress had voted to limit the president’s ability to wage war in Southeast Asia,” Logevall says.
In June 1970, Congress repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by a vote of 81–10, reasserting Congress’ authority over the president’s war-making ability. In December of that year, Congress passed a modified version of the Cooper-Church Amendment. Neither measure put an end to the bombing campaigns in Laos or Cambodia, but it set a strong precedent for Congress to restrain the president.
In June 1971, Nixon’s war effort suffered another blow. The New York Times The Pentagon Papers were released revealing how the U.S. government was secretly increasing its involvement in Vietnam.
The 1973 War Powers Resolution
U.S. 1st Cavalry Division soldiers in the jungle 10 miles from the Cambodian border during a six-hour battle, March 30, 1970, just before President Nixon authorized U.S. troops to cross the Cambodian border.
The War Powers Resolution, also known as the War Powers Act, is a congressional resolution that limits the ability of the President of the United States to launch or conduct military action abroad without express Congressional authorization. The resolution, passed in November 1973 over President Nixon’s veto, requires the President, as commander in chief, to notify Congress each time he deploys military forces and imposes a 60-day limit on any hostilities launched without Congressional authorization. The resolution does not completely ban presidential military action, but it does impose some accountability.
The War Powers Act allows the President to declare war under three circumstances: (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency caused by an attack on the United States, its territories or possessions, or its military. Because Nixon resigned less than a year after the act was passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal, it fell to future presidents to test the limits of the act.
Was the War Powers Act effective?
“The War Powers Act has been violated since it was passed, meaning that presidents tell Congress what they intend to do and then largely ignore the Act when it would interfere with their plans,” says Andrew Preston, a professor of American history at Cambridge University and co-author with Logvall. Nixon in the World: American Foreign Relations, 1969-1977.
“In effect, presidents have challenged Congress to do something about its disrespect for the War Powers Act,” Preston said. “If Congress’s intent in the War Powers Resolution was to reduce US military intervention and restore balance between executive and congressional war powers, then it can only be considered a failure.”
But a bipartisan movement to repeal the War Powers Act in 2008 was unsuccessful. “Congress already has the authority it needs to regulate the president’s war plans through fiscal force,” Logevall said. “Congress just hasn’t been able to exercise that authority.”
