Letters to the Editor
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Vietnam Redux: The Imperial Presidency
America crossed its historical Rubicon in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War era, when LBJ and RMN violated the civil liberties of American citizens protesting against the war by illegal wiretapping them. It was when America stopped being a republic and became an empire with an imperial presidency. In response to the violation of the Constitution by an imperial presidency, Congress tried to reassert the traditional checks and balances between the branches of government by passing the Foreign Intellegience Survailance Act. But the Boy Emperor ignored the law.
And we have had two major wars (Vietnam and Iraq)in which a Congressional Resolution passed by the legislature was intrepreted as a blank check by the executive. If Congress had demanded a declaration of war, in which the executive had to provide specific claims for a declaration of war, perhaps we could have avoided the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. Both were predicated upon false premises ( the Gulf of Tonkin incident in Vietnam and the WMD in Iraq). But the members of Congress seem to have abandoned their Constitutional role.
I see little hope that America will have a chance of being a republic again unless Congress takes immediate action on this matter.
Ironically, both wars were ostensibly fought to promote democracy abroad while democracy at home was violated by the executive branch. And so it goes again and again in the land of the free and the home of the brave.