‘DOVES’ LOSE IN WAR FUNDS VOTE, 39-55

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32392, 3 September 1970, Page 11

‘DOVES’ LOSE IN WAR FUNDS VOTE, 39-55

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2. Senate liberals today pledged to carry their anti-war fight to the polling booths in the next few months after the narrow defeat of their attempt to force President Nixon to end the Vietnam war by December, 1971.

The Senate debate and vote yesterday was seen as the last in a series of foreign policy skirmishes this yeai between liberals of both parties and the Nixon Administration.

“Moral Victory” Senator Mark Hatfield (Republican, Oregop), co-spon-sor of the measure to cut off war funds unless United States troops were pulled out of Indo-China by the end of next year, described the defeat as a moral victory. A coalition of Southern Democrats and Republicans beat the controversial antiwar amendment by a vote of 55 to 39. The amendment, also sponsored by Senator George McGovern (Democrat, South Dakota), was attached to a bill authorising military purchases amounting to $19,243m in the current financial year. Senator Alan Cranston (Democrat, California) told reporters that the next move was up to the voters in November’s Congressional elections. Polling Booths “The fight to end the war in Vietnam moved from the streets to the halls of Congress, where it belonged,” he said. “It now properly moves to the polling booths across the nation.”

Senator McGovern said that it was the first time in American history that a third of the United States Senate voted to cut off military funds tn the midst of a war. Senator Charles Goodell (Republican, New York) said that it should serve as a warning to President Nixon that there was strong sentiment in the Senate against continuing the war. He added that while only 40 per cent of the Senate

voted for the amendment, other senators were also opposed to the war but were against such strong Congressional action as cutting off funds. The military procurement bill, which was approved 845, covers Defence Department research, development and acquisition of a wide variety of weapons, ranging from rifles and pistols to aircraft and nuclear missiles.

It was., the vehicle for a number of other unsuccessful amendments, including a curb on extending the antiballistic missile system and a limit in military credits for Israel. Actions In Cambodia The Senate did, though, in debate on another Defence Department bill, approve an amendment limiting the President’s military actions in Cambodia.

This measure requires Mr Nixon to secure Congressional approval before coihmitting United States forces jo Cambodia or financing non-Ameri-can military support for the Government of the Prime Minister, General Lon Nol.

The House of Representatives has already approved a military procurement bill amounting to $20,571m. The differences in the two versions have to be settled in a House-Senate committee before securing final Congressional approval.