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Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed
Brookings Institution
May 2013
On Sale: May 7, 2013
300 pages ISBN: 0815724934 EAN: 9780815724933 Kindle: B00CICJF8Q Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
Not since Pearl Harbor has an American president gone to
Congress to request a declaration of war. Nevertheless,
since then, one president after another, from Truman to
Obama, has ordered American troops into wars all over the
world. From Korea to Vietnam, Panama to Grenada, Lebanon to
Bosnia, Afghanistan to Iraq —why have presidents sidestepped
declarations of war? Marvin Kalb, former chief diplomatic
correspondent for CBS and NBC News, explores this key
question in his thirteenth book about the presidency and
U.S. foreign policy. Instead of a declaration of war,
presidents have justified their war-making powers by citing
"commitments," private and public, made by former
presidents. Many of these commitments have been honored, but
some betrayed. Surprisingly, given the tight U.S.-Israeli
relationship, Israeli leaders feel that at times they have
been betrayed by American presidents. Is it time for a
negotiated defense treaty between the United States and
Israel as a way of substituting for a string of secret
presidential commitments? From Israel to Vietnam,
presidential commitments have proven to be tricky and
dangerous. For example, one president after another
committed the United States to the defense of South Vietnam,
often without explanation. Over the years, these commitments
mushroomed into national policy, leading to a war costing
58,000 American lives. Few in Congress or the media chose to
question the war's provenance or legitimacy, until it was
too late. No president saw the need for a declaration of
war, considering one to be old-fashioned. The word of
a president can morph into a national commitment. It can
become the functional equivalent of a declaration of war.
Therefore, whenever a president "commits"the United States
to a policy or course of action with, or increasingly
without, congressional approval, watch out —the White House
may be setting the nation on a road toward war.
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