Tonkin Resolution Repealed

Press, Issue 32333, 26 June 1970, Page 13

Tonkin Resolution Repealed

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copy right) WASHINGTON, June 25. The United States Senate today will turn to a controversial proposal to withdraw all American forces from Vietnam by mid-1971 after voting overwhelmingly to repeal the 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution which the former President, Mr Johnson, used as authority to send more troops to Saigon.

The Senate voted yesterday to overturn the vaguelyworded Tonkin Gulf Resolution by 81 votes to 10. Many members felt bitter over what they regard as Mr Johnson’s improper use of the resolution as a blank cheque for sending more than 500,000 troops into Vietnam after a reported North Vietnamese attack on two United States destroyers. But the vote appeared mainly symbolic. For the Nixon administration says it does not rely on the Tonkin

Gulf Resolution as authority for its actions in Indo-China. Republican leaders say that President Nixon is using his constitutional powers as Com-mander-in-Chief to protect troops who were in Vietnam when he took office in January, 1969. Senate supporters of the Administration have publicly threatened to bring the “new amendment to end the war” up for a quick ”Ote—which means it would probably be defeated-.

The chief sponsors of the controversial proposal, a Democrat, Mr George McGovern, and a Republican, Senator Mark Hatfield, have scheduled a press conference today as part of an intensified campaign to gain public support. They would prefer a vote in late summer, after the current debate of Cambodia, as this would give them more time to muster support.

But Senattor Gordon Allot, of Colorado, the third-rank-ing Senate Republican leader, told the Senate yesterday that he was considering calling up the amendment for an early vote. “It is high time we settle some of these issues,” he said.