During the "Cold War", which U.S. presidents had "war time" powers?

Question

I am aware of the history, I, also, know the answer. My question was not asked to benefit me.

hello, back to ya, shortandsassy.:-)

"War time powers", granted by congress to any president and pertaining, solely, to the U.S.S.R.?

Answer 1

Hello there is a lot of history here. The cold war was between 1940 and early 1990's.

Presidents that were involved are
in order
1) Roosevelt
2)Truman
3)Eisenhower
4)Kennedy
5)Johnson
6)Nixon
7)Carter
8)Regan
9) Bush Sr.

For more info you can paste into this page. It will give all the details from beginning to end.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_War


This is how I found out about Cold War History. It is amazing.
I am Canadian and I learnt alot from this question.

Enjoy!!!

Answer 2

First, the Cold War did not begin in 1940. It certainly did not begin before V-E Day (May 1945) when the Red Army did not back away from any territory it had captured. And it probably did not begin before V-J Day (August 1945) because the Soviets, who had declared war on Japan on 8 August, were still our allies.

Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech in Joplin, Missouri, was in 1946. That might mark the beginning of the Cold War, or it might be as late as 1948 (?) with the Berlin Blockade when Moscow denied us entry into West Berlin, prompting the Berlin Airlift.

My guess is that it began in 1946 around the time of the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan (in which the Soviet bloc refused to participate), the formation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and George Kennan's "Long Telegram" on the "containment policy."

However you mark its beginning, it was during the Truman Administration, not FDR's.

Next question is, what constitutes "wartime powers"? All presidents are Commander in Chief of the U.S. armed forces. And during the Cold War, many (but not all) military operations were Cold War related, e.g., our adventures in Nicaragua and Cuba. But the president did not need special "wartime powers" authorization for these operations.

I suppose "wartime powers" means specific authorization from Congress, not necessarily involving a declaration of war. (Neither Korea nor Vietnam had such a declaration.)

With that sort of a definition, I'd say Truman had wartime powers because of Korea, and Eisenhower would have inherited them since the Panmunjom truce came under his watch.

Kennedy probably did not have such power for either the Bay of Pigs or for the CIA and Green Beret "advisors" in Vietnam.

LBJ had extraordinary wartime powers under the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, and Nixon would have inherited them.

There were a couple of incidents during Ford's tenure (a ship was interned in North Korea), but neither he nor Reagan asked for extraordinary powers. And Bush Sr.'s Persian Gulf War occurred after the Cold War ended.

So my answer is four presidents -- Truman and Eisenhower for Korea, and Johnson and Nixon for Vietnam.

None involved a declaration of war.

[Edit -- related to comment limiting wartime powers granted by Congress with respect to USSR only: Korea & Vietnam don't count under this restriction. The only one I can think of, directed solely against the Soviets, is the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when JFK imposed a naval blockade, forcing Soviet freighters bound for Cuba to turn around when Khrushchev blinked. On the other hand, I don't recall any Congressional authorization. I think it was an executive decision.

[Edit, continued: There's also a remote possibility that Truman, probably, or Eisenhower, possibly, had some sort of special authorization vis-a-vis the Soviet Union in the Korean conflict regarding MIG-15s flown by Soviet pilots over North Korea, but I don't remember anything special in this area. I do know that the Russians controlled the air war for their side, including supplying the pilots, and there was an issue whether U.S. F-86 Sabre jets could cross the Yalu into Manchuria in hot pursuit. But was this issue related to the Soviet Union rather than Communist China? I don't think so. End edit]

Answer 3

Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ, and Nixon

Answer 4

None.