How many U.S. republican presidents have declared war?

Answer 1

The Spanish-American war was the only declared war fought under a Republican president. (Mckinley was the president.

The Civil War, which was not a declared war began while the Republican , Lincoln was in office. Both Gulf wars which not declared wars, began under the two Bush presidents, who were Republicans.

Answer 2

Strictly speaking, Congress declares war, after the president requests that they do so.

The Republican Party was created in 1854. It was the election of the first Republican president, Lincoln, which triggered the secession crisis and brought on the Civil War. The US government was careful during the next four years to pretend that there was, in fact, no "war", as a state of declared war would have had international implications which the Lincoln administration wished to avoid. Despite this the US government declared a "blockade" of southern ports, which was something which under international law could only be done when a state of war existed. The US government carefully sought to preserve the fiction that the unpleasantness was a "rebellion" or an "insurrection", which meant they did not acknowledge that the southern states had, in fact, left the Union. Despite this, when the war was over the Republican government made the southern states apply for "readmission".

The Republican McKinley sought a declaration of war against Spain in 1898, which congress granted.

Democrat Woodrow Wilson sought a declaration of war against Germany and the Central Powers in 1917, entering the US into WWI.

Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was president in 1941 when the Japanese attacked the US in Hawaii and the Philippines. (The Japanese attacked because the US military presence in the Philippines represented a threat to their further plans of conquest; the US had the Philippines to begin with as the fruits of Republican McKinley's Empire building of 1898.) Roosevelt sought a declaration of war from congress on December 8, 1941, which acknowledged that a state of war between the US and Japan already existed, as a result of the Japanese attacks. Three days later Germany declared war on the US, followed by Italy.

Democrat Truman sent US troops into Korea after the North Koreans invaded South Korea, but again, officially this was not a "war" but a "police action" under UN auspices.

Republican Eisenhower sent the first US troops to South Vietnam. Democrat Kennedy increased the number there, but there were still only a few thousand. Democrat Johnson vastly increased the number of US troops to a peak of over half a million and began active combat, which Republican Nixon continued for five more years. All without a declaration of war.

Republican George H. W. Bush sought a resolution from congress authorizing the use of military force against Iraq in 1991. This was not a declaration of war, per se.

His son, Republican George W. Bush did the same in 2001 and 2003, for his two wars.

So for explicit Republican-sought declarations of war, one, with an additional four wars waged without one, plus Nixon's five-year prolongation of Vietnam, after having campaigned on a platform of ending the war in 1968. He ran on the same platform in 1972.

Answer 3

10

Answer 4

16