Saddam Hussein's aggression. Supporters also argued that its passage could help pressure Saddam to undertake a last-minute withdrawal from Kuwait.In the end, it was the closest vote on a war resolution in American history. On January 12 both houses of Congress narrowly authorized the use of force. As the White House had calculated, a sufficient number of Democrats joined with virtually all Republicans to yield slender majorities. However close the vote, all members of Congress as well as the public now saw the issue as closed. "In approving the legislation that Congress enacted authorizing the use of force in the Gulf, Bush said:"As I made clear to congressional leaders at the outset, my request for congressional support did not, and my signing this resolution does not, constitute any change in the long-standing positions of theexecutive branch on either the President's constitutional authority touse the Armed Forces to defend vital US interestd or the constitutionalityof the War Powers Resolution.(Edwards 481)On the evening on January 16, 1991, George Bush authorized the launching of Operation Desert Storm. Addressing the American public from the White House, Bush cast the war-just as Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson had before in similar situations-as essential to upholding international order. Aggression in the post-cold war era was considered no less a threat to American security than it had been when the Soviet Union or the Chinese People's Republic was seen as benefitting from the advances of smaller communist countries.Throughout the crisis, Bush was determined not to lead where others would not follow. Like Truman and Johnson before him, Bush claimed that, as commander in chief, he could unilaterally take the country to war. Unlike his predecessors, however, Bush confronted a Congress that was controlled by the opposition party and had strong reservations about the necessity for war. Bush could have handeled Congress mo...
