# Who was the last US president who was not at war with any other country at any time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2001, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798 "2001-11-06T16:00:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798/21 "2001-11-07T06:32:28Z")
Yes. My memory is vague on the overall operation, but I do recall that our battleship(s) were pounding some positions a bit inland. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Stewart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Dave\_Stewart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Stewart)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798/22 "2001-11-07T06:51:50Z")
Harding? He wasn’t around for that long… …hmm, just re-read \*\*bibliphage’s \*\*post…but he didn’t actually send them in himself… ---
**Author:** ![schplebordnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@schplebordnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schplebordnik)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798/23 "2001-11-07T07:09:07Z")
Not only did the U.S.S. New Jersey shell Lebanon, but we also sent planes to bomb the country. Remember the African-American naval aviator that Jesse Jackson negotiated the release of? That started Jacko’s career as a free-lance diplomatic negotiator. Which lead to his later career as a free-lance domestic negotiator, as the mother of his out-of-wedlock kid was writing a book/paper on his diplomatic exploits as he was knocking her up. That being said, I challenge anyone to pin adverse military actions on Taft… ---
**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798/24 "2001-11-07T20:56:12Z")
Sorry about the Mayaguez diversion, folks… I think, but am not sure, that Pres. Wm. Harrison had troops in action against the Seminoles in Florida. Whether or not that counts (if it is the case at all) is up to you. Did the US EVER settle with the Seminole nation? ---
**Author:** ![Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798/25 "2001-11-07T21:23:56Z")
Comparing the list of US Presidents and thier dates of office, I find that for the 1800 - 1860 period, the only conflict listed on the Federation of American Scientists’ list during Harrison’s very brief term (1841 only, and not the whole year) is what is described as the “African Slave Trade Patrol”: “1820-1861 Long illegal, the infamous slave trade was declared by Congress in 1819 to be piracy, and as such, punishable by death. The Navy’s African Slave Trade Patrol was established to search for and bring to justice the dealers in human misery. Never exceeding a few ships in number, the Patrol, which from time to time included the USS Constitution,USS Constellation, USS Saratoga, and USS Yorktown, relentlessly plied the waters off West Africa, South America, and the Cuban coast, a principle area for slave disembarkation. By the start of the Civil War more than 100 suspected slavers had been captured.” At first blush, this sounds like a police/law enforcement thing as its aim was to stop piracy (technically an act of individual bands of criminals). But as it involved US Navy actions against ships of all nations going from Africa to various nations (including then-Spanish colonies in the Americas), it was a military action that at least ran the risk of armed conflict with the military forces of other nations. Decide fr yourself if you want to count it as a “real war”. FYI, I believe slavery in Cuba was not outlawed until 1888. I don’t know about Brazil; I think it was sometime in the 1870’s, but I’m sure someone can correct me. Sorry, I just had to know. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798/26 "2001-11-07T21:46:22Z")
After reading **JCHeckler** ’s post and cite, I was thinking, why would they have failed to mention the Seminole War of 1835-1842 (AKA the Second Seminole War)? But I did check their site and noticed that if you look down a little lower on the list, under “18th Century Wars”, they have Indian Wars : 1790-1891. Its pretty safe to say that if you consider the ongoing conflict with various native tribes, then it would be hard to find any president that was not somehow involved, even if he did not initiate the conflict. Consider that the Second Seminole War didn’t end with a peace treaty as much as just an end of hostilities. I’ve heard (unsubstantiated) that an official treaty was not made with the Seminoles until 1970. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798/27 "2001-11-07T23:25:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Captain Amazing \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Osakadave \* > > \*\*And Lebanon as well. \*\* > > Did we actually fight in Lebanon? We stationed Marines there, and there was the car bomb, but did we get involved in operations. \*\* And of course a secret war in Nicaragua-we may not have sent in troops, but we were certainly training the “freedom fighters”. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798/28 "2001-11-08T01:25:54Z")
My source (the World Book) says that Cuba outlawed slavery in 1886 and Brazil was the last Western Hemisphere holdout, not abolishing slavery until 1888. The British had cut off nearly all of the African slave trade by 1850. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-who-was-not-at-war-with-any-other-country-at-any-time/91798.md?page=1)