@Irishk,
No, Congress does not have a say in it immediately. Lyndon Johnson expanded the war in Vietnam under the authority of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, and we now know that Robert McNamara willfully lied to him and to Congress about the allegation that North Vietnamese boats fired on
USS Maddox and
USS C. Turner Joy. The suspicion that that was the case grew in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and in 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution, and passed it over Nixon's veto. Here's an explanation of the terms of the resolution from Encyclopedia-dot-com.
Quote:The act prescribes procedures for consulting, reporting, and terminating deployment of U.S. armed forces unauthorized by Congress. The president is required to: (1) consult Congress “in every possible instance” before deploying forces abroad; (2) report to both houses within forty‐eight hours and periodically about the circumstances and estimated duration of a deployment; and (3) terminate deployment within sixty days of the initial report unless Congress specifically approves or the president requests a thirty‐day extension to protect the safety of personnel. Congress is authorized to direct withdrawal at any time by concurrent resolution, which presidents cannot veto. To guide interpretation, the act disclaims inferences from statutes, appropriations, or treaties that presidents may commit forces without specific authorization; it also disclaims intentions to alter constitutional powers of the two branches.
However, Presidents immediately began ignoring the war powers act (as it is now known), and have "creatively" interpreted it. Unless Congress can get a joint resolution to order American military forces to stand down, Presidents have interpreted this resolution to mean they have sixty days when Congress cannot hinder them short of a joint resolution to cease and desist. A President can (and Ford, Reagan and Pappy Bush did) "consult" with Congress at the same time as they commit military forces, and then dither around for at least sixty days. That is the
de facto situation, because of the difficulty of getting a concurrent resolution out of Congress.
It's a lot easier for one man to act than five hundred thirty-five. The
de jure answer is that Congress must approve. The
de facto answer is that Presidents have and continue to do pretty much what they please.
