It took over three years for Congress to help stop the Vietnam War

[zulchzulu]

It took more than nine months, which is the same timeframe that the new 2006 Democratic-controlled House and Senate currently are at. Votes were needed to make veto-proof legislation to finally shut the funding for the war down.

The US Senate defines overriding the veto as:

The process by which each chamber of Congress votes on a bill vetoed by the President. To pass a bill over the President's objections requires a two-thirds vote in each Chamber. Historically, Congress has overridden fewer than ten percent of all presidential vetoes.

There was a combination of Congressional legislation (such as the veto-proof Case-Church Amendment in 1973) to cut off funding as well as other factors (like the Paris Peace Accords) and the fall of Saigon in 1975 to the North.

There were a few incremental Congressional pieces of legislation that helped turn off the spigot on the Vietnam war:

McGovern-Hatfield Amendment - 1970

Cooper-Church Amendment - 1970

Repeal of Tonkin Gulf Resolution - 1971

Case-Church Amendment - 1973

War Powers Resolution - 1973

If you study the legislation, you can see that it was a hard fight with much friction even though the war was even more unpopular that the current Occupation. As mentioned, there were other factors as well, but Congress played a very strong role and needed to get votes on both sides of the aisle to get the job done.

Many historians believe it was not the Congress that stopped the war, but the Nixon administration itself. In 1969, there were over 500,000 troops in Vietnam. Nixon started a phased withdrawal of troops later in the year, along with the so-called “Vietnamization” plan to strengthen South Vietnam’s ability to fight. By 1973, there were about 500 troops left.

Note: This is a reprise of a previous post with additional information.
More info: http://www.vietnamwar.com/

POLL QUESTION:

What strategy should we use to get the Senate and Congress to stop the Iraq Occupation?

[TwilightGardener]

1. Contact Republican Senators. The Mass Xenophobia movement

of the Right wing radio folks whipped up enough anti-immigrant frenzy, and phone calls, to deter some Repugs who were going to vote for CIR. Nothing will change without Repug Senators--they are the key.

[Tom Joad]

3. that's not true. The dems could end the war very quickly if they wanted to,

all by themselves. if most Dems blocked the bills for funding (and that doesn't even need a majority) the troops will then have to be withdrawn.

[TwilightGardener]

4. That's politically not a viable solution. There's a reason why they

don't defund, and I don't blame them.

[Tom Joad]

5. yes, the war lobbies would be very upset. angry. very angry.

then who would fund the War Party??
they would have to depend on .... common people. ewwwwwwww...

[Tom Joad]

2. The reason it took so long is because many Dems supported the V. war.

and there are plenty of dems supporting the underlying basis for this war.

warmongering bastards is the nicest way to describe them.