Which US Presidents have not served in the military? For the purposes of this question, “served in the military” means they were in one of the armed services or in a state militia. This includes those who served when the US was not at war, and those who had Stateside jobs or otherwise never saw combat.
Based on my extensive research (okay, so I looked at Wikipedia), I think the list is:
[ul][li]John Adams[]Thomas Jefferson[]James Madison[]John Quincy Adams[]James Polk[]Andrew Johnson[]Grover Cleveland[]William Howard Taft[]Woodrow Wilson[]Warren Harding[]Calvin Coolidge[]Herbert Hoover[]Bill ClintonBarack Obama[/ul]Am I missing anyone, or is anyone on that list who should not be?[/li]
(This question came up because of an argument with an acquaintance that you really don’t want to know about…)
Only barely, but as a commission from the President it makes the cut. That BTW is one thing that tends to confuse this, into the 19th Century it was not unusual to have commissions, even to field rank, issued as a straight political/patronage appointment, specially in the militia (this lives on symbolically in honorary titles such as Kentucky Colonel). OTOH, one also has to consider that every able-bodied free male was theoretically part of the militia, however half-baked the outfit.
OTOH cabinet secretary IS a civilian position, neither Taft nor FDR ever wore the uniform AFAIK. So as of this post, we have to add FDR and strike Jefferson, Polk and A. Johnson from the list:
[ul]
[li]John Adams [/li][li]James Madison [/li][li]John Quincy Adams [/li][li]Grover Cleveland [/li][li]William Howard Taft [/li][li]Woodrow Wilson [/li][li]Warren Harding [/li][li]Calvin Coolidge [/li][li]Herbert Hoover [/li][li]Franklin D. Roosevelt[/li][li]Bill Clinton [/li][li]Barack Obama[/li][/ul]
If you observe the list you get a big 3-decade+ bump of nonmilitary presidents from Taft to FDR – the start of this coincides with the running out of the large pool of men who served in the Civil War (Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt being a media-darling outlier), and a historic trend (that would extend well into modern times) where peacetime service was seen by the public as unglamorous and not a good resumé building block . Then after FDR you get WW1 vet Truman, and then from Ike to Bush41 you get 4 decades with the again huge pool of WW2-era talent (Carter was at Annapolis, Reagan making Army training films, everybody else save for Ike were naval officers), before once again tapering off and having mostly people w/o prior service among the likely candidates in every cycle.
Umm, if you look at the Yorktown campaign, Jefferson doesn’t look very illustrious, what with the delays in calling out the militia, the fleeing, the giving up on being governor.
Then you have his crazy gunboat ideas when president…
Nixon worked in logistics for the South Pacific Combat Air Transport Command. Although as a Quaker he was eligible for an exemption from service (and he never entered into a front line combat role), he served notably in this capacity before resigning his commission to run for Congress as a California representative.
Grover Cleveland notably stands out as an outlier in the large pool of veterans following the Civil War. In an era where much political hay could be made of a candidate’s Civil War record, and “waving the bloody shirt” was a common tactic, Cleveland managed to get elected in spite of having paid a substitute to avoid being drafted for service in the Civil War. That was something that was perfectly legal at the time, and was done by many sons of well-to-do families. It didn’t look good when one was running for public office in later years, though. Cleveland made up for it by being perceived as remarkably honest, and running against Blaine, who was largely believed to be as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.
I’d say the same. I saw a reference to his wife’s reaction “when he came back from World War I”, and didn’t know if that referred to some sort of military assignment or to a civilian assignment connected to the war. Sounds like it was the latter.
Thanks so much for the help! I should maybe should explain that this involves someone who asserted that most US presidents had military experience, but the “very greatest” were those who did not. I brought up George Washington (because, let’s face it, arguing that Washington wasn’t a great president is fightin’ words to most Americans) and got the “exception that proves the rule” bit in reply.
I think, if we look at JRDelirious’s updated list, we find some highly respected presidents and some wrong numbers. A number of highly respected presidents are also clearly absent from the list, not just Washington. So I think it proves my point, she says smugly, that there’s no obvious connection either way between military service and presidential greatness.
He flew as an observer on several bombing missions, receiving the Army Silver Star Medal for “gallantry in action”. Critics have however suggested that the dangers he was exposed to were exaggerated and the medal was just a gesture to someone with political clout.
There seems to be a pretty broad historical consensus that LBJ didn’t really deserve his Silver Star. You’ll notice him wearing the lapel pin in many photos during his years in politics, however. A discussion of the controversy, Militaryphotos.net, and a famous photo showing it: http://www.dba-oracle.com/images/swoose_lbj_stolen_silver_star.jpg
Tell me about it. Theodore Roosevelt in his still-widely-read The Naval War of 1812 is absolutely scathing about Jefferson and his handling of naval affairs.
