Peacetime defined as absolutely no wars, and no military deployments/occupations/peace-keeping missions, etc. longer than two months or using more than 2000 troops. Troops stationed in international bases in friendly countries (are not counted against the concept of peacetime).
It struck me that in a common list of the greatest U.S. presidents, each is tied to a major war. This makes sense, but who was great sans war?
George Washington during his presidency (well I suppose some would count the Indian Wars and the Whiskey Rebellion).
Calvin Coolidge, with Warren Harding coming a close second.
(Seriously, how many peace-time presidents has the U.S. had?)
Not much if you count the Indian Wars.
Those are some pretty strict restraints. The US has been “at war” for quite a lot of our history, particularly if you include the natives. It would be interesting just to identify which presidents would be eligible.
That said, I’ll say:
George Washington
I don’t believe there were any significant military campaigns during his presidency. While he was a war hero, his presidency was during peacetime.
On preview: Damn, someone already picked him. And pointed out the Indian Wars and Whiskey Rebellion.
This would be an interesting question if you just said “no major wars.” But your definition of peace time excludes nearly the entire list of American Presidents.
Washington personally lead an Army of over 10,000 men into western Pennsylvania to quell a rebellion. So that puts him right out.
I think it’ll be difficult to even compile an appropriate list of Presidents who meet your criteria. I mean I think John Adams might qualify, but I don’t know every conflict we ever fought with native Americans, there very easily could have been some battles with natives or such in which there were that many men in theater.
Actually during Adam’s presidency Michigan was a pretty unsettled area populated by forts and with a military presence and lots of skirmishes with the natives. I’m not sure that wouldn’t qualify as a sort of “perpetual low intensity war/occupation.” Our relationship with native tribes creates almost a perpetual state of variable intensity warfare until the late 19th century.
OK, no major wars. Or strategic bombings.
Reagan, if Grenada doesn’t count. About 7-8K troops involved in that one.
George Washington.
With some hesitation, due to the Philipine War dragging into his succession of McKinley, second place would belong to Teddy Roosevelt.
Maybe instigating or escalating a conflict may be a better qualifier.
Dwight Eisenhower-a man reviled in his time, but now acknowledged as a hard worker and competent president.
Eisenhower was an ex-general, and never forgot the awful human suffering caused by war-hence his extreme reluctance to get involved in them. He ran a tight ship-under him, the Federal government expanded hardly at all.
He was blamed for the recession of 1958-but that recession was short and limited.
Eisenhower’s sccessor (JF Kennedy) was young, good-looking, and largely incompetent-he launched a war in Vietnam, and a near-war with the USSR (over Cuba), and gave birth to the “Imperial Presidency”-which our current CIC is an heir to (those $4 million vacations with hundreds of camp followers).
Too bad Eisenhower couldn’t have had a 3rd term.
Has to be George Washington. For the role he played in getting the constitution ratified, if nothing else. No other peacetime president faced that serious a constitutional crisis.
Oh, gross … must I say this:
Bill Clinton
The longest peacetime economic expansion (more jobs created than during 1981-1992!) and did it without busting the budget like St. Ronnie.
Also presided over the end of the Korean War, so not really a peacetime President.
The Constitution was ratified before GW took office (it would sort of have to be), so I’m not sure that counts. You mean the Bill of Rights?
ETA: I know there are many other luminaries who presided during peacetime (such as Thomas Jefferson), but I think these “greatest President” questions are only interesting if we compare apples to apples (i.e., Presidents of an industrial/post-industrial great power). Otherwise it’s like asking “Who was the better executive? Pope Gregory VII or Henry Ford?” – i.e., a pretty sterile inquiry.
I’m fond of Grover Cleveland, who went further than any other president that I can think of to avoid getting into wars. Though I don’t really think he was greater than Washington.
We are a pretty warlike nation, so the pool of peacetime presidents is very small, and I think that every administration has had some event(s) that could be called a war without too much effort, so I would argue that America has never had a peacetime president.
You never miss an opportunity to distort history, do you. The official historical start date of the Vietnam War was 1955, although that is for the purposes of historical evaluation, not for actual combat action. Kennedy continued Eisenhower’s policy there by allowing more military advisors to be sent, but was adamantly opposed to using combat troops. The escalation to a war stance occurred under Lyndon Johnson after the supposed Tonkin Gulf incident was fed to a gullible public as an act of war. The ‘near-war with the USSR’ was hardly something that occurred because of his actions, and in fact was defused by same. I won’t address your ridiculous comment about ‘imperial presidency’.
The guy who sold arms to Iran and Iraq, funded the anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, bombed Libya, sent Marines into Lebanon, invaded Grenada, and oversaw the US role in the late '80s “tanker war” in the Persian Gulf really stretches the credibility of the claim to “peacetime president.”
Although, your claim is more serious than that of Eisenhower. He presided over the last six months of the Korean War, which included several hundred deaths of US soldiers.
Aside from Washington, which is probably the winner, I’m thinking Teddy Roosevelt might have a shot on the short list… I’m not quite clear on the timeline of the conflict in the Philippines ending and him taking the Oval Office, however.
But not a peacetime president: Somalia, the Balkan interventions, enforcing the no-fly zone in Iraq, and cruise missile attacks on suspected terrorist facilities.