Understanding Congress's Role in Terminating Unpopular Wars: A Comparison of the Vietnam and Iraq Wars
Abstract
I examine how Congress reacts when the president refuses to terminate involvement in an unpopular war. To address this, I devise a set of hypotheses based on David Mayhew’s work Congress and the Electoral Connection and seek to predict the conditions under which Congress will employ three strategies to end a war: enacting legislation, framing exit strategies, and privately lobbying the president. I test these hypotheses in two cases, the Vietnam and Iraq wars, and conclude that the hypotheses provide a compelling explanation for Congressional behavior during the two wars.
Description
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Keywords
Vietnam War, 1961-1975, Iraq War, 2003-2011, International relations, c
Citation
McHugh, K. (2014). Understanding Congress’s Role in Terminating Unpopular Wars : A Comparison of the Vietnam and Iraq Wars. Democracy and Security, 10(3), 191–224.