'Operation Total Victory' Continues; Congress Angered

President Nixon's decision to send U. S. troops into Cambodia provoked a torrent of critical reactions in the Senate yesterday.

As "Operation Total Victory" proceeded smoothly on its first day of attacks on North Vietnamese strongholds in Cambodia, angry and frustrated Senators from both parties introduced legislation opposing the action-including a resolution censuring the President.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously requested a face-to-face meeting with Nixon "at his earliest convenience" to discuss the implications of the invasion. The formal request by the committee was the first such bid to a President since the debate over the League of Nations 51 years ago.

Nixon responded by calling meetings Tuesday with the House and Senate Armed Service committees and the Senate Foreign Relations and the House Foreign Affairs committees.

At Harvard a group of students circulated a petition in House dining halls asking Congress to impeach Nixon and withhold approval for military expenditures in Laos and Cambodia. Over 1000 students signed the petition, which will be circulated again today.

Sargent

At a meeting of New England governors in Boston yesterday, all but one indicated their opposition to Nixon's decision. Gov. Francis W. Sargent, who is running for re-election this fall, said he "felt it regrettable that the President felt the need to commit U. S. troops to Cambodia."

"I'm just afraid we're getting further and further into a quagmire and I don't know how we'll get out," he said.

Sen. J. William Fulbright (D. Ark.),

chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the invasion "a substantial expansion of the war in Indochina" and said it was the committee's "constitutional responsibility" to discuss the decision with Nixon.

"I don't know of any legal authority for the President to take this action: not even as Commander-in-Chief does he have the right to engage in undeclared war in a neutral country," Fulbright said.

Sen. George D. Alken (R. Vt.), a supporter of Nixon's "Vietnamization" policy, echoed Fulbright's criticisms. "Apparently Cambodia is regarded not as a foreign country but as a no man's land-free for all." he said.

Hallucination

Sen. Stephen M. Young (D.-Ohio), criticizing the "hallucination of victory in Vietnam." introduced a resolution which would censure the President on the grounds that he had no legal or constitutional power to act in Cambodia.

And two other Senators-Frank Church (D.-Idaho) and John Sherman Cooper (R.-Ky.)-said they will present legislation which would bar the use of U. S. combat troops, military advisors, and arms in Cambodia.

Sen. Alan Cranston (D.-Calif.) said he will co-sponsor amendments to cut off funds for offensive military operations by American forces in all of Southeast Asia, including Cambodia and South Vietnam.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (I).-Mass? made one of the strongest attacks on the decision, calling it "madness." Speaking in Boston yesterday, he said that the President has fallen prey to the illusion that drove another from office-the illusion of an American military victory in Southeast Asia."

Kennedy went on to condemn Nixon's use of "chauvinistic phrases to appeal to someone's idea of the average American." calling it "demeaning to a great nation."

Edwin O. Reischauer, University professor and former ambassador to Japan, voiced the same fears about the President's rhetoric yesterday. "I was most distressed about the way in which he phrased the whole thing," he said. "He kept talking about not being the first president to lose a war, about the need for toughness."

"It is conceivable that it is a necessary step in order to go ahead with the withdrawal program. I don't know that much about it." Reischauer said. "I'm more concerned about the way in which it was justified in the sense that it gets us into a test of wills-which is what we don't want to be involved in."

Alexander B. Woodside, assistant professor of History and lecturer in History 182c ("History of Modern Vietnam"), was more critical of the invasion, saying it was "based on a series of false propositions."

Woodside said that the invasion would play into the hands of the more militant North Vietnamese leaders who wish to retain a wartime economy and prolong the war.

Nixon said yesterday that the test of his decision will be whether "it comes out right." He spent most of the day on a luncheon cruise on the Potomac with his family and with close friend C. G. Bebe Rebozo.