National Affairs: The Word for the Middle East

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The day after the combined Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees voted to reword the resolution granting President Eisenhower the authority he wants to act in the Middle East, New Jersey's Republican H. Alexander Smith met Montana's Democrat Mike Mansfield in the offices of the Foreign Relations Committee. "Mike," said Smith, with obvious exasperation, "just what did you accomplish with your amendment?"

"Alex," countered Mansfield solemnly, "we did the President a favor. We did this"—he grasped Smith's right arm and raised it overhead. "We reaffirmed and reasserted the President's authority as Commander in Chief."

Alex Smith looked odd as Mike Mansfield walked away leaving him with arm upraised, but Mansfield's claim was odder. Yet there was some truth in it: paradoxically, Mansfield and his fellow Democrats had managed to deny Ike a request by upholding presidential powers.

Whirlpool of Emotions. As drafted by Ike and Secretary of State Dulles, the Middle East resolution "authorized" the President to: 1) "employ the armed forces of the U.S. as he deems necessary" to defend nations requesting U.S. military help against Communist armed aggression, and 2) use up to $200 million of already appropriated funds for economic and military aid in the Middle East. The House speedily passed this version 355 to 61, with only picayune amendments.

But in the Senate, the resolution got caught in a whirlpool of Democratic emotions: partisan zeal, dislike and distrust of Secretary of State Dulles, disillusionment with foreign aid, rankling anger at the Republicans for using the "peace" issue in last year's campaign. For fully a month, despite Ike's call for speed, Senate Democrats nitpicked their way through the resolution, pausing for rhetoric, savoring revenge as they harpooned Dulles at every opportunity (TIME, Jan. 28 et seq.). By last week, when the joint committee sat down to draft its version, the Democrats had made themselves look irresponsibly partisan. Then earnest, honest Mike Mansfield stepped in to the rescue.

Thorn Patch Uprooted. Democratic Whip Mansfield had gradually focused his gaze on the best issue the Democrats had: the debatable constitutionality of the word "authorized" in the first half of the resolution. Eisenhower and Dulles insisted that the word was needed to show the world that Congress stands firmly behind the President. But thoughtful Senators on both sides of the aisle began to wonder whether adoption of "authorized" might throw doubt upon the President's implied power as Commander in Chief to use armed forces to safeguard the nation's security. This doubt, the reasoning ran, might deter future Presidents from taking necessary action in future crises. To uproot this constitutional thorn patch, Mansfield drafted an amendment to change the wording from "he is authorized to employ the armed forces of the U.S. as he deems necessary" to "if the President determines the necessity thereof, the U.S. is prepared to use armed forces."