The legality of the Vietnam War refers to the lawfulness of the 1965-1975 U.S. military activity that occurred in Vietnam.
Contents |
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, passed in 1964, authorized U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson to use military force in Southeast Asia. The Resolution was repealed in 1971, however, and President Richard M. Nixon cited his power as commander-in-chief of U.S. forces under Article Two of the United States Constitution as legal authority for operations in Vietnam. No formal declaration of war was ever made.
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter prohibits war that is not to maintain or restore international peace (Article 42) or undertaken in self-defense (Article 51). According to Richard Falk, "If the US Government had abided by international law, the dreadful experience of the Vietnam War would not have occurred."[1]
In United States v. Sisson, a federal judge dismissed a challenge to the Vietnam War’s constitutionality because it involved “just the sort of evidence, policy considerations, and constitutional principles which elude the normal processes of the judiciary and which are far more suitable for determination by coordinate branches of the government.”