[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 93 (Thursday, June 8, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H5743-H5744]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                                 BOSNIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Gonzalez] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GONZALEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in order to report on my actions 
and activities with respect to the ongoing situation in Bosnia and my 
letter to President Clinton, which I had prepared immediately, that 
that became a crisis point, and it looked as if the President might 
take unilateral action without any real consultation with the Congress.
  So in my letter I said: ``The preparations currently underway for the 
possible involvement of U.S. military forces on the ground in Bosnia 
impel me once again''--because I have previously ``to urge you in the 
strongest possible terms to seriously consider this matter before 
committing our troops to any such action and to abide in the closest 
possible way to the laws of the land with regard to the use of U.S. 
military force abroad.''
  Let me say, this has been the story of my career since I first came 
to the Congress, beginning with then-President Kennedy, believe it or 
not, who was probably one of the most intimate personal friends I have 
had as a President, and then with President Johnson, [[Page H5744]] who 
succeeded him, whom, of course, I had known from the beginning back in 
Texas. And more so with President Johnson, I became a gadfly, as the 
drum beats rose in noise and the urge to propel our armed services into 
action became irresistible.
  So in this letter I say, as I said in my letter to you last year--and 
this reflects my consistency ``air strikes will not accomplish the goal 
of peace in the former Yugoslavia.''
  Fortunately, of course, we know now that the president has been 
restrained, and I compliment him. But as I said in this letter, in my 
last paragraph: ``As I have expressed to you with regard to Somalia, 
Haiti, and before in Bosnia, as I have with previous presidents about 
other situations, the Constitution and the War Powers Resolutions''--
which I had the great honor of first evolving and developing in this 
House and eventually, unfortunately too late, enacted ``the 
Constitution and the War Powers Resolution clearly afford Congress an 
important role to play in the use of U.S. military force overseas, and, 
as you know, I have long struggled to uphold this balance of powers 
among co-equal branches of government. I was heartened by your comments 
today that Congress would be consulted in this matter and that you 
continue to exercise restraint in deploying United States forces on the 
ground in Bosnia. I fully hope and trust that you will continue to do 
so.''
                              {time}  1900

  I am happy to say that up until now that seems to be the case.
  However, I do want to point out that one of the things that in fact 
has made me an irritant to be even friends, like President Johnson, is 
the fact that we have become inured more and more to an excessive 
weight in that coequal branch, which should be a coequal branch, the 
presidency.
  After all, the Constitution itself does not make the office of the 
presidency Article 1. It is the Congress, and it was deliberately done. 
There was a reason for it. The men who wrote the Constitution were the 
first to protest that the king made wars. Now in democracies, we have 
the equivalent. The only thing is that it is not the king declaring 
then, but as far as the will of the people expressing itself and the 
idea of the fundamental nature of a justified war having been lost 
sight of, makes it impelling that we review this matter.
  I want to terminate by saying that I will place a copy of this letter 
in the Record, so that those of my colleagues interested will have a 
chance to review it.
  The material referred to is as follows:

                                    Congress of the United States,


                                     House of Representatives,

                                     Washington, DC, May 31, 1995.
     Hon. William J. Clinton,
     President, The White House, Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: The preparations currently underway for 
     the possible involvement of U.S. military forces on the 
     ground in Bosnia impel me once again to urge you in the 
     strongest possible terms to seriously consider this matter 
     before committing our troops to any such action and to abide 
     in the closest possible way to the laws of the land with 
     regard to the use of U.S. military force abroad.
       As I said in my letter to you last year, airstrikes will 
     not accomplish the goal of peace in the former Yugoslavia. I 
     am truly sad to say that recent events make this all the more 
     clear. The Serbian forces in Bosnia have shown that they will 
     exact as high a toll as possible from their adversaries in 
     their pursuit of their military goals. In this situation 
     where the Serbs are waging a war against the Bosnian 
     government and where they consider the United Nations an 
     enemy in their fight, deploying U.S. forces on the ground, 
     whether it be in support of a reorganization of U.N. forces 
     or in a related effort, will surely put our troops in a 
     hostile situation and in imminent danger of being involved in 
     combat. With the Bosnian Serb's recent demonstration of their 
     grotesque lack of respect for civilian life and for U.N. 
     peacekeeping forces, there can be little doubt that American 
     forces would likewise be a target for attack.
       As I have expressed to you with regard to Somalia, Haiti 
     and before on Bosnia, as I have with previous presidents 
     about other situations, the Constitution and the War Powers 
     Resolution clearly afford Congress an important role to play 
     in the use of U.S. military force overseas, and, as you know, 
     I have long struggled to uphold this balance of powers among 
     co-equal branches of government. I was heartened by your 
     comments today that Congress would be consulted in this 
     matter and that you continue to exercise restraint in 
     deploying U.S. forces on the ground in Bosnia. I fully hope 
     and trust that you will continue to do so.
           Sincerely,
                                                Henry B. Gonzalez.
     

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