Constitution

Give or take, it's about 50 years since the start of heavy, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. While North Vietnam was the enemy, no one decided that a declaration of war might be prudent and then let Congress decide. The military industrial congressional complex did well. They made a lot of money. Others?

"Every Senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood. Every Senator here is partly responsible for that human wreckage at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval and all across our land—young men without legs, or arms, or genitals, or faces or hopes. There are not very many of these blasted and broken boys who think this war is a glorious adventure. Do not talk to them about bugging out, or national honor or courage. It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes. And if we do not end this damnable war those young men will some day curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the Executive carry the burden that the Constitution places on us."

Senator George McGovern, 1970.

B-24 pilot, 34 missions in WWII (Europe), a fair number of them where returning was iffy.

.