Imperial Presidency in the Vietnam War

Perhaps one of the greatest exhibitions of the imperial presidency took place during the Vietnam War. Both the Johnson and Nixon administrations exercised special executive privilege in attempts to secure US credibility in what would become a foreign policy disaster. This war allowed the executive branch to become dangerously powerful in the realm of foreign affairs. President Johnson had tied the hands of congress with the Tonkin Gulf Resolution which granted his administration the final say on all matters concerning the situation in Vietnam. Presidential power had become so absolute that chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, William Fulbright was prompted to proclaim the existence of a "presidential dictatorship in foreign affairs" Former Kennedy aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. would add that "the imperial presidency [was] out of control and badly in need of new definition and restraint" (Jentleson 143). As opposition mounted Johnson and Nixon would attempt to marginalize the media and the anti-war movement in attempts to protect their foreign policy agenda. "During times of war," Nixon believed that "the president must be especially powerful ...and opposition to that power was treason" (Idiot's 259). Congressional opposition would trump the Nixon administration in 1973 by passing the War Powers Resolution which "was intended to increase Congress's share of the war powers in the next Vietnam" (Jentleson 143).