War Powers - pre-WWII Cold War

Started a job at Pizzeria Fondi in U-district, that's why I haven't been blogging much lately. I have to ride 3 buses and it takes at least an hour and a half each way. Seattle got hit with the worst snow storm, cold weather and wind we've had in decades, right when I was starting my new job of course. It's fun though, we use a brick dome oven that gets 700 F and cooks a pizza in 5 minutes. Last night was winter solstice, so the days will start to get longer again. Me and Mandy (black lab/chow) go romping in the snow, she loves it.


The common perception is that the so-called Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union began after WWII, but the US was actively opposing the Bolsheviks after their revolution in 1917. Small wars fought in many countries and continents fall under the Cold War category not because the US was in combat with Russians, but because we used the perceived threat of Bolshevism to use military force to uphold the in equal arrangements of US capitalism. The actual threat of communist infiltration was minimal in most cases, the real danger was the effect socialist economic planning would have on the profits of US Corporations.


Take the case of Nicaragua for instance. The US intervened repeatedly in the years from 1909 to 1933 to support a conservative party of oligarchs who favored US business (United Fruit) against a liberal party that had popular support and wanted to change their role as a stockroom for the global economy. (Irons, 121) During Calvin Coolidge's administration, Adolfo Diaz, the illegitimate president of the country, faced a popular insurgency that he claimed was formed by Mexican Bolsheviks. When Coolidge sent troops and naval vessels to "supervise" an election, Congress responded with a bill that prevented him from sending any more. They didn't quite reassert their Constitutionally delegated war powers, but at least they didn't give a blank check.

A supreme court case from this time had major repercussions for the extend of executive privilege. In 1933, Congress allowed the package of legislation known as the New deal to go through due to the need to deal with the depression. The National Industrial Recovery Act (HIRA) and Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) gave the president the power to set prices and quotas for hundreds of products, and tax food manufacturers to pay farmers not to farm (reducing supply to up demand). (Irons, 122) The Supreme Court challenged this delegation of legislative powers onto the executive, and FDR used the Justice department to attempt to undermine the Courts authority.

In another instance, the Court backed FDR's intrusion into the foreign policy making power of Congress. The Paraguay River is the border between Bolivia and Paraguay, and major route for products going to the Atlantic. When the Bolivians tried to seize it, a war erupted and FDR made a congressionally backed proclamation outlawing the shipping of arms to either side. After the conflict, it was claimed by federal prosecutors that the Curtiss-Wright company had sent 15 machine guns to Bolivia. They company resisted indictment with the claim that congress had "improperly delegated legislative power to the executive branch". (Irons, 124)

The Supreme Courts ruling made a distinction between domestic affairs and foreign, and gave the president wide ranging power in the latter, and limited the delegation doctrine of Congresses role in shaping foreign policy. According to the Curtiss-Wright ruling, the nation's survival depended on the presidents control of international relations. Sutherland's opinion brought up a stance taken by former Justice Marshall, that the executive was the "sole organ of the nation in its external affairs, and its sole representative with foreign nations." (Irons, 125) The ruling set the shaky precedent of an inherent presidential power with no constitutional backing.


The Spanish civil war was a conflict that many US citizens felt demanded the intervention of the US, constituents of the left wanting support of the Republican government and Catholics supporting Franco as the Republicans were secular leftists, and to some degree persecuted Catholics in Spain. It was also important for its international significance and role as a prelude to WWII. The Republican group, made up of "communists, socialists, and anarchists" was supported by the Soviets and other left-leaning European governments. (Irons, 127) The Fascist rebel group was supported by the Nazis and Mussolini's Italy, who were using belligerent language about Socialist/Communists.

FDR refused to choose sides in the conflict, Irons suggests a motive in the role both leftists and Catholics have in the Democratic party. FDR enacted an arms embargo on either Spanish group, a move which did more to hurt the Republican left than the Fascist Right, and helped the Fascist movements in Germany and Italy. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, FDR claimed neutrality, but started shipping arms and ammo to the British and the French, in a repeat of the lead up to US involvement in WWI. (Irons, 128) FDR made a deal with Churchill to give naval destroyers in return for US use of Islands in various parts of the British empire. Rather than consulting Congress, he used the argument of AG Jackson that he could do what was necessary to acquire and maintain naval and military bases as C in C. The deal was essentially a treaty, but cleverly crafted and unconstitutional legal doctrine allowed the bloated executive powers to be further enlarged.