It was Joe Biden for a whole 36 days… who was the last to get through an entire term without doing this?
If by “bomb” you mean specifically from an airplane, then I’d bet it would be the last president before airplanes were a thing.
Carter.
His administration wasn’t without military action (Eagle Claw would have killed a lot of Iranians had it succeeded,) but that mission, AIUI, wouldn’t have involved any air-dropped bombs.
If you mean as snfaulkner suggests it seems that FDR was the last with a complete term(his second), and Hoover the last without an overseas bombing during his presidency. Before him Harding and Coolidge didn’t either.
But there have been many, many ‘interventions’, it’s just that the vast majority consisted of landing some Marines and escorting/guarding/evacuating U.S. citizens and interests during localized unrest in foreign lands.
Let’s say last without an ‘intervention’, then. Unless it really was Carter?
I hate the idea that Carter wins this prize because his Department of Defense couldn’t coordinate a moderately complex specops operation. He fully intended that as many Iranians as necessary would die. The attempt should count.
Also, does the hypothetical exclude covert action? Only military (armed forces) action, excluding paramilitary (CIA, etc.) activity?
It actually did plan to drop bombs, the entire plan would have had AC-130’s laying waste to Iranian defenses as well as carriers based off-shore launching fighter-bomber sorties. There would be a massive air strike campaign in a very short period of time to basically let the rescue convoy get to the embassy.
So what happened?
It’s my understanding that David Rice Atchison made no plans or attempts to bomb anyone during the entirety of his term.
And I can think of at least three reasons why.
Considering he was never president, it’s irrelevent whether he did or didn’t.