Ernest Dacosta v. Melvin Laird, Individually and as Secretary of Defense

IRVING R. KAUFMAN, Circuit Judge:

We are called upon to decide the very specific question whether the Secretary of Defense, the Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the Commander of American military forces in Vietnam, 1 2 may implement the directive of the President of the United States, announced on May 8, 1972, ordering the mining of the ports and harbors of North Vietnam and the continuation of air and naval strikes against military targets located in that battle-scarred land. The appellant seeks a declaratory judgment* that the military operations undertaken pursuant to that…