Evening star., 1951-01-16
Troops, Congress and Mr.. Truman

There can be little doubt that the Constitu-
ton invests in the President the right the duty,
the authority and the power to order, without
the prior consent of Congress, the dispatch OF
American military forces to foreign areas when
and If he finds that such action is necessary to
safeguard the interests and security of the
United States. This principle principle put
into action by several of our past Chief Execu-
tives-is so deeply rooted in our history and
system of government that it now seems to be
far beyond the reach of any effective legal
challenge.
YET despite the numerous Supreme Court
decisions and the long series of historic prec-
edents that have affirmed and reaffirmed it,
this great and grave constitutional prerOgatve
of the Chief Executive is being challenged today
in limited Sense-by a number of leading
Senators in both major parties On the Re-
publican side, the most prominent challengers
are Taft of Ohio and Wherry of Nebraska;
among the Democrats, they are George of
Georgia and Douglas of Illinois. Although their
views on the issue are by no means identical,
all four appear to be agreed on the basic idea
of trying to obge the President-in one way
or another-to seek the consent or participation
of the Senate or of Congress whole, before
he commits additional American ground forces
to Western Europe as part of the defensive syS-
tenn being developed under the Atlantic Pact.
In one important respect, of course, the
raising of such an issue at this particular time
seems unfortunately premature. For the debate
revolving around it, wholly apart from the un-
certainties it may create in the minds of our
friends abroad, can hardly be carried out on an
informed basis until General Eisenhower re-
turns from his European mission and reports on
Cd what kind of military effort our allies
be counted upon to make, 90 whether that effort
is going to be good and effective enough to war
rant the dispatch of more American ground
forces, and 90 how big those forces should be If
the situation justifies their commitment. If
General Eisenhower's findings are unfavorable
these points, it Is most unlikely that the
President will send any large number of troops to
Western Europe, in which case the current
congressional challenge will prove to have been
q rather academic assault on a thing that never
materialized.
On the other hand, if General Eisenhower's
report and recommendations turn out to be
favorable, the chances are that there will be no
very serious opposition in Congress to the idea
Of sending more American troops to Western
Europe. For most of the legislators who now
have msgivngS about such commitment are
anything but isolationiSts. On the contrary,
nearly all of them-incuding Mr.. Taft-fully
realize that the United States must actively
protect itself far from it's own shores in this
dangerous world and they have significantly
limited their challenge to Presidential authority
only as regards the dispatch of ground forces,
not air or sea power. Presumably, if they can be
shown that additional ground forces can be
used to good effect across the Atlantic, they will
not try to block action to that end.
In any event. however, considering that