Bipartisanship occurs when the two major parties put aside their political differences and work together. In 1947, when the United States entered the cold war of international tensions and competition with the Soviet Union and its allied communist bloc nations, both parties in Congress rallied behind a common, bipartisan foreign policy.
Bipartisanship developed during the 80th Congress (1947–48), with Republicans in the majority on Capitol Hill and Democratic President Harry S. Truman in the White House. Although opposed to Truman's domestic programs, Republicans such as Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg argued that “politics should stop at the water's edge.” Most congressional Republicans supported Truman's foreign policies to rebuild Europe and to contain the spread of communism.
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected President in 1952, and congressional Democrats continued the bipartisan foreign policy, believing that it allowed the United States to respond effectively to the communist nations. But bipartisanship also stifled debate and eroded the legislative role in foreign policy. Asserting “national security,” the executive branch determined foreign policy on its own, with minimum consultation with Congress.
Decline of bipartisanship
Bipartisan policy contributed to the Vietnam War and came apart because of it. President Lyndon B. Johnson, a former Senate majority leader, expected Congress to support his Vietnam initiatives. In 1964, with little debate, Congress almost unanimously passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which supported the use of American military force in Vietnam. But as the war escalated, many members— especially in Johnson's own Democratic party—grew disillusioned and dismayed. When Republican Richard Nixon continued the war after 1969, Democrats increasingly opposed his policies. Congress asserted a much stronger voice and began to challenge Presidential foreign policies. Enactment of the War Powers Resolution in 1973, over President Nixon's veto, set specific limits on the President's power to deploy military forces and marked the end of bipartisanship. Congress placed a renewed emphasis on the separation of powers and checks and balances in foreign policy.
See also Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964); Johnson, Lyndon B.; Vandenberg, Arthur H.; War powers
Sources
- Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Imperial Presidency (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973)
