WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 1964 (UPI) - The House and Senate approved in quick succession today an emergency Viet-Nam resolution upholding President Johnson in any "fight-if-we-must" measures needed to counter Red aggression in Southeast Asia. The House roll call vote was 414 to 0.
The Senate vote, which sent the resolution to the White House, was 88 to 2. The dissenting votes were cast by Sens. Wayne Morse (D-Ore.) and Ernest Gruening (D-Alaska).
The resolution states that "the Congress approves and supports the determination of the President - as commander in chief - to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.
It was proposed to Congress Wednesday after Johnson ordered U.S. carrier planes to bomb North Viet-Namese torpedo boat bases which had sent out attackers against two U.S. destroyers.
Only major opposition to the declaration came from Sen. Wayne Morse (D-Ore.), who waged a delaying action against the resolution in the Senate. House passage came after a 40-minute debate.
Morse, a sharp critic of the Administration's policies in Viet-Nam, opened his attack on the resolution with a speech last night. He said, "No one can justify the (North Viet-Namese) PT-boat attacks, but the fact that the U.S. destroyer Maddox was relatively close inshore when South Viet-Namese planes attacked some North Viet-Namese islands "was a well thought-out military maneuver."
"If we had known that the South Viet-Namese were going to bomb the islands (last Friday) we should not have had ships anywhere near the islands," he said. Morse contended that it was after the bombings that the PT-boats began pursuing the Maddox.
The Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees and the House Foreign Affairs Committee overwhelmingly approved the resolution yesterday.
