Help with some Viet Nam Era Legislative Perspective

[Stinky The Clown]

(This is NOT a David Obey thread)

The other day, in the midst of that dustup over David Obey's hallway encounter with the Marine Corp mom, it was noted that there were 31 (I thought 38) different bills voted upon before the Congress wrested a modicum of control from the Administration.

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have been doing, it seems, the same sort of thing - which is forcing vote after vote after vote on bills that are both similar and diverse, but all aimed at either an actual or symbolic end of the Iraq War.

While we all have opinions about the current tactics of the current congressional leadership, this thread is actually asking for some recollections of how things went down toward the end of the Viet Nam War.

I was around and aware back then, but find my memory today a bit fuzzy and unclear. Any assistance in bringing it back would be most appreciated.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. kick

[sandnsea]

2. Well

I don't think our troop presence in Vietnam was ended by defunding. Troop level was at its highest in 1969 with 543,400 troops, dropped to 280,000 in 1970, was down to 69,000 in 1972 and completely withdrawn by 1973. The Cooper-Church Amendment, passed in Jan. 1971, was intended to end Nixon’s escalation into Cambodia. The Case-Church Amendment, passed June 1973, made any military action illegal in the whole of the region. That was after the Paris Peace Accord. The defunding that everybody talks about didn't happen until 74 or 75, and it cut funding to the actual South Vietnamese budget in half. That's what ended the entire war, not just our participation in the war.

[Sapere aude]

3. The pressure to end the Vietnam war came from the streets. The demonstrations were on TV.

We have very little of that now. We have to get out and march. On the 17th there will be an anti war march in Santa Barbara my wife tells me.