n too feeble to assert
their prerogative in this respect, and have sometimes actually chosen to
turn the other cheek. Thus when in 1900 President McKinley, without
consulting Congress, contributed a sizable contingent to the joint
forces that went to the relief of the foreign legations in Peking, the
Chinese Imperial Government agreed that this action had not constituted
war.[417]

The Atlantic Pact

Article V of the Atlantic Pact builds on such precedents. The novel
feature is its enlarged conception of defensible American interests
abroad. In the words of the published abstract of the Report of the
Committee on Foreign Relations on the Pact, "Article 5 records what is a
fact, namely, that an armed attack within the meaning of the treaty
would in the present-day world constitute an attack upon the entire
community comprising the parties to the treaty, including the United
States. Accordingly, the President and the Congress, each within their
sphere of assigned constitutional responsibilities, would be expected to
take all action necessary and appropriate to protect the United States
against the consequences and dangers of an armed attack committed
against any party to the treaty."[418] But from the very nature of
things, the discharge of this obligation against overt force will
ordinarily rest with the President in the first instance, just as has
the discharge in the past of the like obligation in the protection of
American rights abroad. Furthermore, in the discharge of this obligation
the President will ordinarily be required to use force and perform acts
of war. Such is the verdict of history, a verdict which was foreseen
more or less definitely by the framers themselves.[419]

PRESIDENTIAL ACTION IN THE DOMAIN OF CONGRESS: THE STEEL SEIZURE CASE

Facts[420]

To avert a nation-wide strike of steel workers which he believed would
jeopardize the national defense, President Truman, on April 8th, 1952,
issued Executive Order 10340[421] directing the Secretary of Commerce to
seize and operate most of the steel mills of the country. The Order
cited no specific statutory authorization, but invoked generally the
powers vested in the President by the Constitution and laws of the
United States. Secretary Sawyer forthwith issued an order seizing the
mills and directing their presidents to operate them as operating
managers for the United States in accordance with his regulations and
directions. The President prompt