LBJ vs. the Senate

President Johnson was stymied last week by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Led by its chairman, Senator Fulbright, the committee refused to support a joint resolution -- scheduled on the eve of the Latin American summit conference at Punta del Este -- which would have promised to back financially the new Common Market south of the border.

The Common Market is unlikely to meet very strong opposition from Congressional liberals when the President requests actual funds for it in the future. What the committee objected to, however, was the President's request for a resolution to expedite his diplomacy.

Many Senate doves, spearheaded by Fulbright, have never gotten over the Gulf of Tonkin resolution passed in August, 1964. The President, to the chagrin of many of the resolution's proponents, has used the overwhelming Congressional support he received on that occasion as a rationale for many of his moves in Vietnam unrelated to the Tonkin incident.

More important, Johnson's manipulation of the Tonkin Resolution has grievously undermined any role Congress could play in influencing his Vietnam decisions. This is the crux of the dispute -- Fulbright and the eight members of the committee quite logically feel that Johnson has been guilty of duplicity. And they have decided to punish him by withholding a diplomatic tool he has misused in the past.