Showing posts with label Spanish American War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spanish American War. Show all posts

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Presidents and War Service

Revolutionary War

George Washington
James Monroe
Andrew Jackson

War of 1812

James Madison (as President)
James Monroe (as Secretaries of War and State)
Andrew Jackson
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler (Militia Service; saw no action)
James Buchanan

Mexican War

Zachary Taylor
Franklin Pierce
U.S. Grant

Civil War

Millard Fillmore (after his presidency; Major in Buffalo militia home guard; saw no action)
Andrew Johnson (military governor of Tennessee)
U.S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
James Garfield
Chester Arthur
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley

Spanish American War

Theodore Roosevelt

World War I

Harry Truman
Dwight Eisenhower (saw no action)

World War II

Dwight Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Richard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Ronald Reagan (saw no action)
George H.W. Bush

Korea

Jimmy Carter (US Navy)

Vietnam

George W. Bush (Reserves; no action)

Gulf War I, Gulf II, Afghanistan, War on Terror

None yet

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Goods (part 2)

Here is the second part of the list of good presidents:
They are listed chronologically.
1. Chester Arthur (1881-1885): He took over when Garfield was assassinated. While in office, he racked up a considerable (for the time) list of reforms. Arthur proved uncontrollable, so the party bosses had to get rid of him. He lost the nomination in 1884 to James Blaine. Blaine lost the election.
2. Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897): Grover Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms. He is the only Democrat to be elected to office between 1860-1912. The most important piece of legislation passed under him was the Interstate Commerce Act which became the basis for all government regulation. He also pushed for a sound economy and anti-inflationary measures.
3. William McKinley (1897-1901): William McKinley was the GOP's James K Polk. He oversaw the Spanish-American War and the acquisition of overseas colonies. McKinley opposed going to war with Spain until The USS Maine blew up in Havana Harbor. Everyone blamed Spain and the war was on. The US acquired Guam, The Philippines, Gitmo, and Puerto Rico.
4. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963): Domestically, Kennedy did not get much done legislatively. He did help the Civil Rights Movement and aided James Meredith integrate Ole Miss. Kennedy also stopped the USSR from depositing missiles in Cuba. Had he failed, you would not be reading this and he'd be a failure. Kennedy had two major failures in foreign policy. One was the Bay of Pigs mistake and the other was his first summit with Khrushchev. Overall, his record was solid.
5. George H. W. Bush (1989-1993): A decade ago, he'd have been a rung down on this ladder, but his stock has improved amongst historians and even his enemies. He stopped Iraqi Aggression in Kuwait and did not get the country bogged down in Iraq. When Panama declared war, he finished it. Bush also passed the last real piece of civil rights legislation with the ADA. On the other hand, the country underwent a slight recession and he lost the 1992 election because of Ross Perot.
Tags: The Presidency, Politics, Chester Arthur, Presidents, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Spanish American War, John F. Kennedy, Cuban Missile Crisis, George HW Bush, Bush 41, Iraq