If the provisions built into the Paris accords are now to be undone by the arbitrary and legally unsupportable acts carried out in open violation of those accords. then this administration will be legitimizing the use of force whenever its diplomacy fails. The way to rebuild the peace and to repair the damage already done to these beleaguered countries is not to wage further war and not to seek refuge in shaky legal doctrine in doing so. If the aftermath of the ceasefire agreement is to be the spilling of more blood. the loss of more American servicemen. the creation of thousands of Cambodian and Laotian refugees. and the poisoning of the climate in which the reconstruction of these countries should begin to take place. then we have accompished little toward our goal of freedom and security in that part of the world. It is apparent that the constitutional checks and balances and the weights of public opinion have been ineffective in halting the unilateral warmaking decisions of the executive branch. Despite strong condemnation of the bombing by majorities in both Houses of the Congress. the administration persists in expanding the conflict.
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refugees