This list of Presidentaial War power quotations was compiled by Jonathan.
The book is excellent for supporting Presidential War Power, and is an easy read. I think that
the War Powers Act of 1973 and other Congressional legislation has limited the presidents ability
to command troops. However, the President only has his ability to send troops in Constitutionally
allowable areas. Please read the book, it is well worth it!
Senator John Caldwell Calhoun
". . . I agree. . . that the President has announced that there is a war; but according to my interpretation, there is no war according to the sense of our Constitution. I distinguish between hostilities and war, and God forbid that, acting under the Constitution, we should ever confound one with the other. There may be invasion without war, and the President is authorized to repel invasion without war. But it is our sacred duty to make war, and it is for us to determine whether war should be declared or not. If we have declared war, a state of war exists, and not till then."
Congressional Globe, 29th Congress. 1st session 784 (1846)
President James Monroe
"We should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety."
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Page 787
President Theodore Roosevelt
No nation need fear U.S. interference in its internal affairs- provided that it act with "reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters. . . [and] if it keeps order and pays its obligations." "Chronic wrongdoing or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society," might compel America to intervene.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Page 99623
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"Well, let me give you an illustration: Suppose my neighbor’s house catches on fire, and I have a length of garden house four or five hundred feet away. If he can take my garden hose and connect it up with his hydrant I may help him put out his fire. Now, what do I do? I don’t say to him before that operation, ‘ Neighbor, my garden hose cost me $15; you don’t have to me $15 for it.’ What is the transaction that goes on? I don’t want $15- I want my garden hose back after the fire is over."
9 Public Papers and Addresses of FDR. Pages 607
Congressman Vito Marcantonio
"When we agreed to the United Nations Charter we never agreed to supplant our Constitution with the United Nations Charter. The power to declare and make war is vested in the representatives of the people, in the Congress of the United States."
96th Congressional Record. 9268 (1951)
President Harry S. Truman
"Under the President’s constitutional powers as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces he has the authority to send troops anywhere in the world. That power has been recognized repeatedly by the Congress and the courts."
Public Papers of the Presidents. Page 19
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
"There is at least doubt as to whether or not the President could, without congressional authorization, take the kind of action which I am talking about."
Senate Joint Resolution 28- The Formosa Resolution. 84th Congress, 1st session 87 (1955)
President Dwight David Eisenhower
"I deem it necesary to seek the cooperation of the Congress. Only with that cooperation can we give the reassurance needed to deter agression."
Public Papers of the Presidents. Page 11
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
It will be the policy of the United States to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western hemisphere "as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union."
76 Stat. 697 (1962)
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: ‘Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.’"
9 Public Papers and Addresses of FDR. Pages 517
President Lyndon Baines Johnson
"we are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves." (At that time there were »18,000 American soldiers in Vietnam).
Public Papers of the Presidents. 1963-1964, II, 1391 And they called Nixon 'tricky' Dick!!
The War Powers Resolution
the President "in certain extraordinary and emergency circumstances has the authority to defend the United States and its citizens without specific prior authorization by the Congress."
War Powers Resolution
The Desert One Rescue Effort
Dateline Tehran, November 1979. Iranian militants siexe the US Embassy, taking more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days. Carter orders rid of 8 helicopters and six C-130s. Two helicopters malifunction, a third has a hydraulic leak. Finally, a helicopter and plane collide, killing eight Americans and injuring several others.
Lebanon
October 23, 1983, suicide-bomber kills 241 U.S. Marines in their barricks in Beirut, Lebanon.
Invasion of Grenada
October 25, 1983 1,900 U.S. Army and Marine Corps personnel landed in Grenada, supported by the U.S. Navy and Air Force, as well as 300 members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Reagan gave three justifications for the mission: 1) the protection of live, including up to a thousand Americans 2) to foreswtall “further chaos,” and 3)to assist in the restoration of “ conditions of law and order of government institutions” to the island of Grenada. Reagan also declared the Grenada "was a Soviet-Cuban colony, being readied as a major military bastion to export terror and undermine democracy."
Public Papers of the Presidents. 1983. II. Page 1521
Air Strikes Against Libya
March 24, 1986, the Reagan administration announced that U.S. naval aircraft and ships in the Gulf of Sidra had been subject to attack by six surface-to-air missiles launched by Libyan forces. U.S. forces returned fire, sinking three Libyan patrol boats and damaging another. On April 14, 1986 Reagan ordered air strikes against several Libyan targets: command and control systems, intelligence, communications, logistics, and training facilities. Planes were launched from British soil and denied air clearance over France.
