THE CONGRESS: Telegram Intercepted

On the House floor last week, Manhattan's Congressman Frederic Rene Coudert Jr. offered an amendment to the Defense Appropriation Bill. Its purpose, as Republican Coudert explained it, was "to prevent another Korea ... by any President who chooses ... to bypass the Congress in committing the people of the U.S. to great and bloody wars."

The language of "Fritz" Coudert's rider was disarmingly simple. It barred the use of any money for sending U.S. forces into "armed conflict anywhere in the world" except I) after congressional declaration of war, or 2) in event of an enemy attack on either...

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