I was speaking with an English colleague yesterday. And yet that is the position that we're in. KALB: Well - in my judgment, anyway - the whole idea of war and peace issues being vested in one human being in an age of nuclear weapons, in an age of terrorism seems to me utterly overwhelming. GREENE: Is it healthy to have this situation? Or are there concerns when Congress is largely absent from these decisions? And since those decades, starting with the end of World War II, progressively, Congress has backed out of the picture and allowed the president to do all of that. And once again, to go to Congress, it would take too long. The second thing was that we were suddenly in a Cold War. Nuclear weapons had been used against Japan, and the American people felt - and Congress, too - that were we to use these weapons again, only one guy could make that call, and that's the president. First is right after World War II, we were suddenly in an atomic age. And there are a couple of good reasons for that. no president has ever gone to Congress to ask for a declaration of war. Since that time, though we have fought in many, many wars. I need a declaration, because we have to go and fight a war. And President Roosevelt went to the Congress and said: We have been attacked. KALB: December 1941, shortly after the Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbor. When was the last time Congress declared war? GREENE: I want to ask you, the Constitution, as you put it in your book, was fairly unambiguous: The power to declare war rests with Congress. He examines this in his latest book, "The Road to War: Presidential Commitments Honored and Betrayed." Marvin Kalb came by our studios to talk about it. He says Congress hasn't played a large enough role managing conflicts and diplomacy, and Marvin Kalb points to one specific thing no Congress has done for decades: declare war. politics and foreign affairs, including the Vietnam War. He spent three decades as a network TV correspondent, covering U.S. Veteran journalist Marvin Kalb has some thoughts on what Congress needs to spend more time doing. I'm Renee Montagne.Ĭongress is heading out of town for their summer recess, with a lot left to get done when they return.
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