Reported by the joint conference committee on June 30, 1973; agreed to by the House on June 30, 1973 (266–75) and by the Senate on June 30, 1973 (agreed)
Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on July 1, 1973
The Case–Church Amendment was proposed, as an amendment to several appropriations bills funding various departments of the United States Government, in 1972 and 1973. The first version actually to become law, passed by both houses of the Congress on June 29, 1973, and signed by President Richard Nixon on July 1, read: "None of the funds herein appropriated under this Act may be expended to support directly or indirectly combat activities in or over Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam and South Vietnam or off the shores of Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam and South Vietnam by United States forces, and after August 15, 1973, no other funds heretofore appropriated under any other act may be expended for such purpose."[1] This ended direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War, although the U.S. continued to provide military equipment and economic support to the governments of Cambodia, Laos, and South Vietnam. It is named for its principal co-sponsors, Senators Clifford P. Case (R–NJ) and Frank Church (D–ID).
The amendment was defeated 48–42 in the U.S. Senate in August 1972, but revived after the 1972 election. It was reintroduced on January 26, 1973 and approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 13.[2] When it became apparent that the amendment would pass, President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger,[3] lobbied frantically to have the deadline extended.[4]
However, under pressure from the extreme scrutiny of Watergate, Republicans relented on support for South Vietnam, and the amendment passed the United States Congress in June 1973 by a margin of 325–86 in the House, 73–16 in the Senate.[5][6] Both of these margins for the amendment's passage were greater than the two-thirds majority required to override a presidential veto,[5] and Nixon signed it on July 1, 1973.
The last U.S. forces had been withdrawn from South Vietnam in March 1973 pursuant to the Paris Peace Accords.[7] U.S. bombing had ended on January 28 in Vietnam and in April in Laos, though bombing intensified in Cambodia. US bombing in Cambodia, the only form of US combat action that had continued in any part of Indochina after April, ended on August 15, 1973, the deadline set by the amendment.[8] Airlift of munitions and food to Cambodia and South Vietnam continued until April 1975.
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