ABSTRACT
During the Vietnam War, liberals who had vigorously defended Harry Truman's constitutional authority to intervene militarily in Korea began to have second thoughts about the scope of presidential war powers. Contemporary presidents have preferred an expansive interpretation of the commander-in-chief clause that essentially grants the president an unrestricted authority to do with the armed forces whatever he deems in the national interest. The war of words between James Madison and Alexander Hamilton obscured the cooperation and mutual deference that characterized the relationship between the president and Congress on questions of war and peace during the Washington administration. Under the Virginia Plan, Congress was empowered to "negative" any law that it deemed in contravention of the Constitution and "to call forth the force of the Union" against any state that failed to fulfill its constitutional duty, as defined by Congress. Issued on April 22, 1793, Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality was generally well received.
