Nation: Atavistic Yearning

Though it has a constitutional duty to give the President its "advice and consent" on treaties, the U.S. Senate exerts little influence on American foreign policy. The Chief Executive, as in most countries today, runs his country's foreign relations. Most Senators reluctantly accept their ever more limited role in this area; some do not. It is thus a measure of Johnson's declining prestige in Congress that the Senate should have seriously considered a resolution declaring that national commitments to foreign governments would henceforth be binding only when Congress agreed on them with the President.

Introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman J....