War and Responsibility: Constitutional Lessons of Vietnam and Its Aftermath / Edition 1

by John Hart Ely

Overview

Twenty years after the signing of the Paris Accords, the constitutional ambiguities of American involvement in the Vietnam War remain unresolved. John Hart Ely examines the overall constitutionality of America's role in Vietnam; and shows that Congress authorized each new phase of American involvement without committing itself to the stated aims of intervention.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691025520
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/26/1995
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Formerly the Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University and then Dean of Stanford Law School, John Hart Ely is Robert E. Paradise Professor at Stanford. His Democracy and Distrust: A Theory of Judicial Review won the Order of the Coif triennial award for the best book published in any field of law during the years 1980 through 1982.

Table of Contents

Preface

Ch. 1 The Constitutional Framework

Ch. 2 Vietnam: The (Troubled) Constitutionality of the War They Told Us About

Ch. 3 Inducing Congress to Face Up to Its Constitutional Responsibilities

Ch. 4 The (Unenforceable) Unconstitutionality of the "Secret War" in Laos, 1962-1969

Ch. 5 The (Enforceable) Unconstitutionality of the Secret Bombing of Cambodia, 1969-1970

Ch. 6 "Covert" War Today

Appendix: Toward a War Powers (Combat Authorization) Act That Works

Provisions That Don't Do Any Good and Only Give the President an Excuse to Flout the Resolution

Strengthening the Potentially Operational Provisions

A Proposed Combat Authorization Act

Notes

Index

What People are Saying About This

Richard Falk

John Hart Ely ... is something of a marvel among law scholars: he writes readable, influential books about crucial issues of public policy.... [Ely] is convinced that the country would be more likely to avoid disastrous experiences of the Vietnam sort if the Constitution were made to work.
— Richard Falk, Princeton University

Tribe

In what is destined to become a classic, one of America's finest legal thinkers has brought much-needed new clarity to a perennial problem.
— Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard Law School

Ronald V. Dellums

Professor Ely has written a book of timely and tremendous importance. It makes a significant contribution to the hoped-for restoration of the historic constitutional balance between the legislative and executive branches.
— Representative Ronald V. Dellums, Chairman, House Committee on Armed Services

From the Publisher

"In what is destined to become a classic, one of America's finest legal thinkers has brought much-needed new clarity to a perennial problem."—Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard Law School

"[T]he most signal quality of this book is its shining integrity. Ely's patient, careful, but never tedious examination of Congress's role in the authorization of the Vietnam War is an inspiring antidote to the indulgent amnesia of so many who ought to know better."—Philip Bobbitt, Michigan Law Review

"John Hart Ely ... is something of a marvel among law scholars: he writes readable, influential books about crucial issues of public policy.... [Ely] is convinced that the country would be more likely to avoid disastrous experiences of the Vietnam sort if the Constitution were made to work. "—Richard Falk, Princeton University

"There is no more detailed or tightly analyzed summary of recent uses of the war power. [War and Responsibility belongs on the bookshelf of anyone teaching about the presidency or concerned at the clash that sometimes exists between the power of the modern presidency and the tenets of American democracy."—Philippa Strum, Presidential Studies Quarterly

"Professor Ely has written a book of timely and tremendous importance. It makes a significant contribution to the hoped-for restoration of the historic constitutional balance between the legislative and executive branches."—Representative Ronald V. Dellums, Chairman, House Committee on Armed Services

Philip Bobbitt

[T]he most signal quality of this book is its shining integrity. Ely's patient, careful, but never tedious examination of Congress's role in the authorization of the Vietnam War is an inspiring antidote to the indulgent amnesia of so many who ought to know better.
— Philip Bobbitt, "Michigan Law Review"

Philippa Strum

There is no more detailed or tightly analyzed summary of recent uses of the war power. [War and Responsibility belongs on the bookshelf of anyone teaching about the presidency or concerned at the clash that sometimes exists between the power of the modern presidency and the tenets of American democracy.
— Philippa Strum, "Presidential Studies Quarterly"

Editorial Reviews

"In this short but compellingly reasoned book, John Hart Ely argues that the congressional effort to regain its constitutional power has essentially failed. . . . With clarity and sophistication, [he] walks us through a mine field of legal and political nuances. . . . Ely's fine book should be seen as part of a revival of scholarly commitment to the separation of powers and to the theory of governing that undergirds it."

The Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science

John Hart Ely has done a remarkable job in taking a series of elegant and sophisticated legal arguments and presenting them in an unusually concise and readable form. More important, he has breathed new life into the War Powers Resolution with a handful of suggestions that could bring the war power back to where it was intended, the representatives of the people.
— Melvin Small

History: Reviews of New Books

In this splendid volume Ely gives us the mature, ripened intellectual fruit of at least a quarter century's thought and the reflection by a leading constitutional law scholar on [a] most divisive public issue.

New York Law Journal - Daniel J. Kornstein

This is scholarship with a difference. . . . Now that this book exists, no one should engage in discussions about war and U.S. responsibility or the War Powers Act without having first consulted it.

Commonweal - James Finn

John Hart Ely has done a remarkable job in taking a series of elegant and sophisticated legal arguments and presenting them in an unusually concise and readable form. More important, he has breathed new life into the War Powers Resolution with a handful of suggestions that could bring the war power back to where it was intended, the representatives of the people.

History: Reviews of New Books - Melvin Small

[T]he most signal quality of this book is its shining integrity. Ely's patient, careful, but never tedious examination of Congress's role in the authorization of the Vietnam War is an inspiring antidote to the indulgent amnesia of so many who ought to know better.

Michigan Law Review - Philip Bobbitt

In this splendid volume Ely gives us the mature, ripened intellectual fruit of at least a quarter century's thought and the reflection by a leading constitutional law scholar on [a] most divisive public issue.
— Daniel J. Kornstein

New York Law Journal

This is scholarship with a difference. . . . Now that this book exists, no one should engage in discussions about war and U.S. responsibility or the War Powers Act without having first consulted it.
— James Finn

Commonweal

[T]he most signal quality of this book is its shining integrity. Ely's patient, careful, but never tedious examination of Congress's role in the authorization of the Vietnam War is an inspiring antidote to the indulgent amnesia of so many who ought to know better.
— Philip Bobbitt

Michigan Law Review

"John Hart Ely has done a remarkable job in taking a series of elegant and sophisticated legal arguments and presenting them in an unusually concise and readable form. More important, he has breathed new life into the War Powers Resolution with a handful of suggestions that could bring the war power back to where it was intended, the representatives of the people."—-Melvin Small, History: Reviews of New Books

"This is scholarship with a difference. . . . Now that this book exists, no one should engage in discussions about war and U.S. responsibility or the War Powers Act without having first consulted it."—-James Finn, Commonweal

From the Publisher