A lecture by US Congressman Les AuCoin titled "Who Sends America to War?" delivered to the "Leadership and Public Policy" class at Pacific University on February 4, 1991. The class was designed to have Congressman AuCoin meet with the students for one and a half hours each month to "try to see how America works-- examining the distinctions between democratic governance in theory and as it is practiced by real people with real passions, feares, prejudices, principles, cynicism, and idealism." Discussing the Persian Gulf War, Congressman AuCoin states "The United States has unleashed the most powerful air campaign in military history and is posed for the largest tank and infantry battles in history. I find disturbing flaws in our policy. But I [sic] what I find more disturbing is President Bush's view that he, alone, has the power to wage this war-- notwithstanding the terms of the War Powers Resolution or Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution....What we have here is a President who refused to follow the law. His Administration went to ridiculous length to define 'hositilies' so as to avoid sending a report to Congress that would have triggered the War Powers Act and required an affirmative vote by Congress in order to maintain the troop development."
A video featuring footage of NBC and ABC news coverage of a 1989 "Timber Summit" organized by the Oregon congressional delegation, including an interview with US Congressman Les AuCoin, and the Gulf War. The 1980s and early 1990s in Oregon were marked by a declining timber industry, including a large-scale debate between environmentalists (including members of the ESA Committee, the "God Squad") concerned about protecting the habitat of the endangered northern spotted owl and the members of the logging industry who argued that the Endangered Species Act and its regulations reduced the number of jobs for timber workers. The footage is likely from between 1989 and 1991.
