In October of 1973, the world was still reeling from the Yom Kippur war. Egypt, defeated and embarrassed, had requested that the United States send troops as “peacekeepers” while the Soviet Union was threatening to do the same. Cooler heads would ultimately prevail.

At the same time, the nation was still broiling over the Kent State incident, and while US troops had at last been withdrawn from South Vietnam, the underlying cause of the Kent State tragedy was on the mind of Congress. with Watergate rapidly becoming more and more a major issue, some began to worry that an unstable President might commit US Troops to unwise adventures to, in essence, wag the dog.

The solution was the 1973 War Powers Resolution. Designed to put firm limits on the ability of the President to commit US forces to combat, there was one (well, several, but one main one) problem with the Act. It required the President to sign it to become law.

And there was no way under heaven that Richard Nixon was going to sign that Act…

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