Greatest U.S. Peacetime President?

[FuriousGeorge]

I’m gonna go with William Henry Harrison.

[Kimmy_Gibbler]

@madmonk28

But not a peacetime president: Somalia, the Balkan interventions, enforcing the no-fly zone in Iraq, and cruise missile attacks on suspected terrorist facilities.

Sure, I am aware of those. Yet I think most people today, perhaps only from the standpoint of the intervening ten-twelve years, wouldn’t call the 1990s wartime. Indeed, I think most would even agree to call it peacetime. As you noted, it is difficult to find a period of sustained military inaction in modern U.S. history.

Similarly, does anyone really remember Poppy Bush as a wartime president? (Even Baudrilliard, after all, thinks that the (First) Gulf War Did Not Take Place.)

In other words, I think Baudrillard’s point is well-taken: Bush I and Clinton as wartime presidents presided over a very different kind of wartime than did FDR or Bush II (who I think much more clearly merit that classification).

[Chefguy]

I would have gone with Jefferson, if not for that whole Barbary pirates thing. I’m not sure that the US actually declared war on them, although we did bombard Tripoli on several occasions. Jefferson was intent on building empire, but at that time it was appropriate.

[madmonk28]

@Kimmy_Gibbler

Sure, I am aware of those. Yet I think most people today, perhaps only from the standpoint of the intervening ten-twelve years, wouldn’t call the 1990s wartime. Indeed, I think most would even agree to call it peacetime. As you noted, it is difficult to find a period of sustained military inaction in modern U.S. history.

Similarly, does anyone really remember Poppy Bush as a wartime president? (Even Baudrilliard, after all, thinks that the (First) Gulf War Did Not Take Place.)

In other words, I think Baudrillard’s point is well-taken: Bush I and Clinton as wartime presidents presided over a very different kind of wartime than did FDR or Bush II (who I think much more clearly merit that classification).

I think you would consider Clinton a wartime president if you were a Serbian chetnik, or a Somali fighter; and if you were an Iraqi tank commander trying to get out of Kuwait, I’m sure you would consider Bush I a wartime president. The fact that we often kill people by remote control rather than with our own troops at risk doesn’t really matter so much to the people who are killed.

[Acsenray]

For this thread to make sense, the OP needs to make a comprehensive list of all the incidents that are considered “wartime” for the purposes of this thread.

How about this for a start?

1776-1794 Indian Wars/Shay’s and Whiskey Rebellions
1801-1805 First Barbary War
1812-1815 War of 1812 and Second Barbary War
1816-1818 First Seminole War
1835-1842 Seminole Wars
1846-1848 Mexican-American War
1861-1865 American Civil War
1898 Spanish-American War
1899-1913 Philippine-American War
1917-1918 First World War
1941-1945 Second World War
1950-1953 Korean War
1959-1975 Vietnam War
1989-1990 Panama
1991 Gulf War
2001-present Afghanistan and Iraq

You know what? This is hopeless. Even with this list, we have precious few presidents left who can even be included in a “peacetime president” evaluation. And I’m sure that there are several other historical incidents that people are going to say should be included on this list. With that, there will be no one left.

I think we need to re-think what we want “peacetime president” to mean for this discussion.

[Kimmy_Gibbler]

@madmonk28

I think you would consider Clinton a wartime president if you were a Serbian chetnik, or a Somali fighter; and if you were an Iraqi tank commander trying to get out of Kuwait, I’m sure you would consider Bush I a wartime president. The fact that we often kill people by remote control rather than with our own troops at risk doesn’t really matter so much to the people who are killed.

Why don’t you do a mitzvah and tell us whom you consider to be peacetime presidents.

[madmonk28]

I don’t think America has ever had a peacetime president. I think we are a nation that has been almost perpetually at war since our inception and that war is such a central part of our national identity that we don’t recognize wars as being “real” unless they are exceptionally bloody.

[Chefguy]

Perhaps ‘presidents under whom a war wasn’t started’? Many presidents inherited wars when they took office.

[Kimmy_Gibbler]

@madmonk28

I don’t think America has ever had a peacetime president. I think we are a nation that has been almost perpetually at war since our inception and that war is such a central part of our national identity that we don’t recognize wars as being “real” unless they are exceptionally bloody.

So you’re eternally perplexed when you hear the phrase “peacetime president”? When you do hear it, what do you suppose its speaker to mean?

[Tom_Scud]

@Chefguy

Perhaps ‘presidents under whom a war wasn’t started’? Many presidents inherited wars when they took office.

So Lyndon Johnson was a peacetime president?

[Sailboat]

@Ravenman

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.”

You forgot the meddling in Nicaragua, including funding blowing up bridges and airplanes and actual US personnel mining the harbors.

[Chefguy]

@Tom_Scud

So Lyndon Johnson was a peacetime president?

Try going back and rereading that portion of the thread. Somebody suggested having different criteria; I was suggesting a possibility, not trying to start a fight.

[The_Second_Stone]

I’m going to discount minor wars. I’m also going to include FDR for his first two terms.

1 Washington
5 Jefferson
3 Teddy Roosevelt
4 Franklin D. Roosevelt
2 Clinton

Eisenhower was not a great president in my opinion, and got us started in Vietnam. Reagan was a terrible president.

[Martin_Hyde]

How about any President who didn’t serve during what I term the “Great Wars”:

War of 1812 [James Madison]
Mexican War [James Polk]
American Civil War [Abraham Lincoln]
Spanish-American War [William McKinley]
Philippine Insurrection [McKinley, TR]
World War I [Woodrow Wilson]
World War II [FDR, Truman]
Korean War [Truman]
Vietnam War [Johnson, Nixon]
Gulf War [Bush I]
Iraq & Afghanistan Punitive Expeditions / Nationbuilding / Terrorist Hunting [Bush II, Obama]

[MEBuckner]

@ralph124c

Dwight Eisenhower-a man reviled in his time, but now acknowledged as a hard worker and competent president.

Eisenhower was “reviled in his time”??? We’re talking about the guy who won re-election with 457 electoral votes , won 41 of the 48 states, and won over 57% of the popular vote.

[Chefguy]

@MEBuckner

Eisenhower was “reviled in his time”??? We’re talking about the guy who won re-election with 457 electoral votes , won 41 of the 48 states, and won over 57% of the popular vote.

He was considered boring in his time, but hardly reviled. He was a national hero. In retrospect, of course, he allowed hundreds of nuclear tests to be conducted on US soil and allowed the CIA and AEC to run experimental programs with zero oversight. But retrospect is seldom kind to politicians.