The War Powers Act of 1973 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The War Powers Act of 1973 - Essay Example President Harry Truman set the trend of going around Congress, and the Constitution, when he conveyed troops to Korea in 1950. Congress endeavored to recapture its sole position to pronounce war when it passed the War Powers Act in 1973 as a reaction to the undeclared Vietnam War. The Act permits the Commander-in-Chief to react to crisis circumstances and convey troops for a restricted measure of time without a proper assertion of war. Nonetheless, presidents from Truman to George W. Hedge have immediately disregarded this Act just as their naturally restricted authority by pursuing extended wars everywhere throughout the world. All have specifically refered to the piece of the Constitution that gives them authority over the military while overlooking the part that specifies they don't have the position to take up arms against their own. As per the United States Constitution Article One, Section Eight, just Congress has the restrictive power to â€Å"to pronounce war [and] award letters of marque and reprisal† (United States Constitution). Presidents don't have this power. In any case, the War Powers Act of 1973 bypassed the Constitution. The Act takes into consideration the President to send troops to a nation for 60-90 days without the assent of Congress (War Powers Resolution, 1973). It is expected to initially permit the president to convey troops in a crisis circumstance however furthermore to carefully authorize Congressional power to proclaim war, to hold fast to the composers of the Constitution’s goal for the people’s agents in Congress to choose if military activity was in the nation’s wellbeing. Given the equivocalness of this permit the workplace of President presently needs to start war, however the President could, theoretically obviously, act without explicit congressional e ndorsement to take up arms against a sovereign country that didn't represent a military danger. This could hypothetically prompt an apparently