War and the Modern Presidency

Miller Center of Public AffairsUniversity of Virginia

Charlottesville, VADecember 7, 2006

Prof. Marc SelverstoneMiller Center of Public Affairs

University of Virginia

“The Virginia Experiment:”Growing Seeds of Democracy in Four Hundred Years of American History

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

October 8, 1940

Source: http://tv.yahoo.com

Geena Davis

George Washington

Source: http://memory.loc.gov

President Harry S. Truman

Source: http://www.trumanlibrary.org

Presidential Roles

• Chief Economist

• Chief Diplomat

• Legislative Leader

• Party Leader

• Chief Executive

• Chief of State

• Commander in Chief

LBJ Diary

August 4, 1964

Lyndon Johnson Daily Diary

AmericanPresident.org

I. Historical Background

The Constitution of the United States of America

• “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States . . .”

Article II, Section 2

Article I, Section 8

• “The Congress shall have the Power To . . .

• provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States . . .

• To Declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules

concerning Captures on Land and Water;

• “To raise and support Armies . . .”

• “To provide and maintain a Navy . . .

•“To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

• “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, surpress

Insurrections and repel Invasions . . .”

The Constitutional Convention

Source: www.pbs.org

Landing at Vera Cruz

Congressional Declarations of War

• England, 1812

• Mexico, 1846

• Spain, 1898

• Germany, 1917

• Japan, 1941

II. The Modern Wartime Presidency

President Woodrow Wilson

President Woodrow Wilson

SOL 9 – The U.S.Enters World Affairs

www.vcdh.virginia.edu/solguide

III. President Franklin D. Roosevelt

FDR Wartime Regulatory Agencies

• Office of Emergency Management

• Board of Economic Warfare

• National War Labor Board

• Office of Defense Transportation

• War Production Board

January 1, 1939

Presidential Roles

• Chief Economist

• Chief Diplomat

• Legislative Leader

• Party Leader

• Chief Executive

• Chief of State

• Commander in Chief

Relevant Themes

• Role of the President as Commander in Chief

• Relationship Between Foreign and Domestic Policy

• Domestic Political Context of Foreign Policymaking

• Relationship Between Intelligence and Policymaking

• Challenge of Managing the Press

• Sheer Complexity of the Presidential Office

WhiteHouseTapes.orgwww.whitehousetapes.org

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

October 25, 1940

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

September 27, 1940

Source: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photos/9981a.jpg

Executive Order 9981, July 26, 1948

The Cold War

Korea, 1950-1953

IV. President Harry S. Truman

Postwar Presidential Deployments

• Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon in Vietnam

• Ford in Cambodia

• Reagan in Lebanon, Libya, and Grenada

• Bush 41 in Panama and Somalia

• Clinton in Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan, Bosnia, and Kosovo

V. President Dwight D. Eisenhower

VI. President John F. Kennedy

October 27, 1962

The Executive Committee of the National Security Council

The White House, October 2, 1963

Sec. Def. Robert McNamara, CJCS Maxwell Taylor, and President John F. Kennedy

The White House, October 29, 1963

Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy

Source: www.jfklibrary.org

The White House, November 4, 1963

President John F. Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy Jr.

Source: www.jfklibrary.org

Source: www.lbjlib.utexas.edu

VII. President Lyndon B. Johnson

Source: www.lbjlib.utexas.edu

President Lyndon B. Johnson

January 31, 1964

http://www.crmvet.org/

Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner

August 3-6, 1964Source: www.history.navy.mil

U.S.S. Maddox

President Lyndon B. Johnson and Robert S. McNamara

The White House, July 2, 1965

The White House, July 7, 1965Source: www.lbjlib.utexas.edu

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson

Source: www.lbjlib.utexas.edu

VIII. President Richard M. Nixon

December 21, 1970Source: www.history.navy.mil

President Richard Nixon and H.R. (Bob) Haldeman

August 3, 1972Source: www.lbjlib.utexas.edu

President Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger