Who was the last US president who did not start a war?
score:30
As noted in the comments, this depends on what you mean by "Starting a war".
Technically speaking, a war requires a formal declaration by Congress (though specific forms are subject to debate). As such, the last one started by the USA was in WW2, with declarations in 1941 (Japan/Germany/Italy) and 1942 (Romania and other Axys countries); which makes the answer to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the last one to start a congressionally-declared war, and every president since then did not.
More broadly speaking, if you count congressional authorization for the war, the last (and really only) 4 presidents since FDR who did not start a war were Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, and Donald J Trump. So Trump is the answer to your question if you count wars that are not congressionally declared
The latter (Trump) conclusion is confirmed by various left wing newspaper fact checkers as of 2021 (Reuters, USA Today as random Google hits).
Upvote:1
If you mean start a declared war, then the last president to do that was Woodrow Wilson, in 1917. in 1941, the US declared war on Japan only to recognize that there already was a state of war. In 1917, Wilson started the US war against Germany, in the process stoking ethnic tensions in the US and the world that we are still paying the price for to this day
Upvote:11
The last time the US officially declared war against another nation was on December 8, 1941 - Japan. And that declaration was necessary, because Japan didn't declare ware on the US before starting the attack. Germany declared war on the US soon after. Franklin D. Roosevelt spearheaded that one, for those of you who really don't know your history.
However, officially declaring war appears to have gone out of style since then. If you want to define 'war' as a US president initiating military action against another nation, on a level that mandates congressional approval, that's a bit harder to define.
After Roosevelt, Truman authorized the US intervention in Korea, in conjunction with a UN resolution.
Eisenhower... inherited the Korean war and brought it to an end. He did keep US troops out of the Suez crisis, but he also sent troops into Lebanon in 1958, the Lebanon crisis. Technically, that wasn't an invasion, it was supporting an existing government. Eisenhower's administration was also involved in the 1953 Iran coup, although technically speaking, US forces weren't directly involved.
Kennedy kicked off the Vietnam war with the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, plus the unofficial backing of the Bay of Pigs invasion by rebels.
Johnson... didn't really initiate a fresh action, but he did escalate the US involvement in Vietnam considerably, from an advise and support with some troops role, into the US becoming the primary combat force.
Nixon authorized the incursion into Cambodia and Laos, although he wasn't attacking the Cambodian and Laotian forces, just N Vietnamese forces using eastern Cambodia and Laos.
Ford did authorize force against the Khmer Rouge (who were ruling Cambodia at the time) as a response to the Mayaguez incident.
Carter authorized the disastrous hostage rescue attempt against Iran, which technically was an armed invasion of a sovereign nation.
Reagan initiated the invasion of Grenada. His support of the contra rebels wasn't technically armed action by the US. He also sent 1200 Marines into Lebanon in 1983 as a peacekeeping force, leading to the bombing of the barracks at great loss of life, but technically, that wasn't an invasion, it was support of the existing Lebanon government.
GHW Bush authorized Gulf War 1.
Bill Clinton expanded the Somalia aid mission to include force, and then pulled the heavy weaponry out as a conciliatory gesture, leading to the Blackhawk Down incident.
GW Bush started the Afghanistan invasion, and then the Iraq invasion.
Obama initiated the Libya overthrow that directly involved US forces, and indirect involvement in Syria.
So it appears that the last president not to commit US troops to combat on a scale that requires congressional approval, was Eisenhower.
The last US president not to use the US military in a combat situation... Herbert Hoover, who left office in 1932.
More post
- 📝 Did iron age Britons still use the "ritual" sites built by their neolithic predecessors?
- 📝 Why was Hitler friendly toward Arabs given that they are Semitic too?
- 📝 Has any (nominally) democratic government ever been domestically overthrown without military assistance?
- 📝 How could Eratosthenes measure the circumference of the Earth?
- 📝 What's the dating of the standard Akkadian version of the Gilgamesh Epic?
- 📝 How frequently were heated metal torture implements used?
- 📝 Looking for quote about workhouses
- 📝 Gold coin vs Silver coin exchange rate fluctuations in antiquity
- 📝 Was any other religion as exact in terms of genealogy as Judaism?
- 📝 Was the Iron curtain actually present at the time of the Fulton speech?
- 📝 What are some examples of clauses against unifications in peace treaties?
- 📝 Looking for a (preferably digital) collection of McCarthy speeches (transcripts)
- 📝 What was the error in 1790, if any, of the lat. and long. of Greenwich Observatory of 1783?
- 📝 Who was Asselin FitzArthur?
- 📝 Jerusalem 1187: How did ethnicity impact Saladin's army?
- 📝 What were the trade routes between Mapungubwe and other civilizations?
- 📝 Did the Yamnaya have a particular breed of dog? Did that breed spread with them?
- 📝 In the "Immigrationist theory" of Romanians (Vlachs), how did they became the vast majority in Transylvania?
- 📝 Did Turkey invade Cyprus to keep the USSR out? Is there really CIA files that prove this for real?
- 📝 What was the impetus for some African nations to participate in the slave trade?
- 📝 How far away could one be and still see the atom bomb explosions?
- 📝 Was Alexander the Great undefeated in every battle?
- 📝 How was the Luftwaffe able to destroy nearly 4000 Soviet aircraft in 3 days of operation Barbarossa?
- 📝 Athenian tribute lists
- 📝 Why is literacy difficult?
- 📝 Was merchant Hugh McCulloch the first Scotsman to set foot in California?
- 📝 Were the dates of saints days moved as part of the Gregorian calendar reforms?
- 📝 Changing troops in first line during battle?
- 📝 Have there been instances of a monarchy being reintroduced after being abolished?
- 📝 Which types of tank are on this photo?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Who was the last US president who did not start a war?
- 📝 When did last names start being used, and who introduced the concept?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 How did such a relatively minor event as the assassination of an archduke start World War I?
- 📝 Who was the last leader of a country to call himself a dictator, or the last regime that called itself a dictatorship?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union not "grant" Inner Mongolia to Mongolia after World War Two?
- 📝 Who was the last European king to actively engage in combat?
- 📝 Which was the last major war in which horse mounted cavalry actually participated in active fighting?
- 📝 Why did the Arabs start the 1973 War during Ramadan, and did it affect their performance?
- 📝 Who was the last English king whose first language was French?
- 📝 Why was the last battle of the War of 1812 fought fully half a year after the official end of the war?
- 📝 Who was the last person "Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered" under British jurisdiction?
- 📝 Why did Germany decide not to restore the Hohenzollern dynasty to the throne of a German Empire after the defeat of Hitler in World War Two?
- 📝 Who was the richest person in the world at the start and end of WW2?
- 📝 Why did Japan not withdraw from China as its pacific front was crumbling and the threat of US invasion imminent?
- 📝 Was Ford the only person who became a US president without winning an election?
- 📝 Did Hannibal start the Second Punic War prematurely?
- 📝 Who was 'Viscount Yi' and what did he do to survive in the court of a madman?
- 📝 Before Idriss Deby, who was the last head of state to be killed in combat?
- 📝 Why did antique guns and swords from the Franco-Prussian War make part of the demilitarization program to which Germany was subjected?
- 📝 Why did the Byzantines not try to recover Syria during the war between Ali and Muawiya?
- 📝 Did Hirohito offer to stand trial for war crimes, but was turned down by the US?
- 📝 Did the U.S economy flourish after national debt was eliminated by President Andrew Jackson in 1835?
- 📝 What did people used to exchange for goods during the 1920s German hyperinflation while the official currency was not trusted
- 📝 How big was the percentage of white people in the USA who were not against granting the blacks equal rights?
- 📝 How was Pre-Samurai Japan structured ? What part did solders and warriors play in the yayoi culture and how did the Yamato state wage war ?
- 📝 Which was the last war in which swords were used?
- 📝 Why was James II and VII (same person), the last Roman Catholic monarch of Britain, not forced to convert to Anglicanism?
- 📝 Who was the last Egyptian pharaoh to be worshipped as a 'deity' or seen as something 'divine' whether in potential or actuality?