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Many of the most important decisions of
the presidency have been made in wartime, in the
president's role as commander-in-chief. As
Commander-in-Chief of the United States' armed forces,
the President is ultimately at the head of the chain of
command for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and the
Coast Guard. While many former military generals such as
Washington, Jackson, Grant and Eisenhower have served as
president, there is no requisite of former military
service to become Commander-in-Chief. This is an
important concept in the Constitution, making the
ultimate head of the armed forces an elected civilian
and not a member of the forces directly under his
command. Civilian control of the military
serves to balance the needs of defense and security with
accountability to the democratic populace.
NOTE: The examples
listed below are selected for their value in study for
the Regent's Examination,
and represent a small fraction of the possible examples.
Lincoln's
decisions during the Civil War:
During the Civil War, Abraham
Lincoln found himself thrust into the role of
Commander-in-Chief almost immediately after his
inauguration, as the southern states began to secede
from the Union. Lincoln made several important decisions
during the war that not only helped to win the war and
preserve the Union, but tested the Constitution.
- Increased
funding and military size -
Lincoln called up many of the state militias in
the northern states and increased the size of
the Union armed forces. He also allocated
increased funding to the armed services, despite
lacking Congressional approval (a technical
violation of the Constitution's spending
provisions, later approved by Congress after the
fact)
- Blockade of
Southern Ports
-
The naval blockade of Southern ports proved to
be one of the most successful tactics of the
war. Lincoln ordered the blockade and an
accompanying increase in the size of the US
Navy. The success of the blockade kept Southern
exports low, robbing the CSA of much needed
funding, as well as limiting imports of military
supplies, as well as food and basic necessities.
The blockades success had a human toll, as by
the end of the war the South was experiencing
increasing starvation and malnutrition.
- Declaration
of martial law
and suspension of habeas corpus-
Martial law is a state of military authority,
imposed on civilians in time of war. This
resulted in a suspension of many rights normally
protected by the Constitution. The writ of
habeas corpus was suspended during martial law,
meaning that an accused person's right to be
charged with a crime before a judge prior to
detention was not given. As a result, thousands
of people were arrested and detained for long
periods without having been even accused of a
crime.
President
Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb:
As World War II was coming to a
close in Europe with the defeat of the Nazi regime in
Germany,
 the
Allied powers look to also close the conflict in the
Pacific theatre. Vice-President Harry S. Truman
found himself in the role of Commander-in-chief
following the death of FDR in 1945. The new president
was quickly asked to make one of the most difficult
decisions of this or any other war, whether or not to
use the newly completed nuclear bombs against the
Japanese. Truman was forced to
weigh many issues before ultimately deciding to utilize
the deadliest of all weapons.
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Arguments
for use |
Arguments
opposed |
- It was widely believed that the Japanese
military leadership did not consider
surrender an option in the conflict,
requiring a full scale assault on the
Japanese mainland similar to the D-Day
invasion at Normandy.
- Given the size of the Japanese conquest in
the Pacific and the huge number of islands
in the region, a protracted was estimated to
last an additional 18 months to 2 years.
- Estimates of casualties from a full-scale
invasion of the Japanese mainland ranged
from an additional 1/2 to 1 1/2 million
allied casualties or injuries, in addition
to huge Japanese losses.
- Japanese leadership was informed of the
scope and nature of the nuclear attack and
offered a period to surrender, and declining
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- The LittleBoy and Fatman bombs (pictured
above) dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respecively were untested in combat and the
ultimate scope of the bombings would have
been unknown.
- Neither targeted
city was a major military target and the
vast majority of those whould would be
killed in the attacks were Japanese
civilains.
- Radiation poinsoning,
the resulting fallout, as well
as longterm birthdefects and contamination
would have negative effects on the
population for years to come.
- The use of nuclear
weapons would set a new precedent about the
acceptablity of weapons of mass destruction
as allowable in war.
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President
Truman's decision to integrate the armed forces:
 As
World War II drew to a close, the contributions of
African-Americans to the war effort became fully
understood. Almost 1,000,000 African-American men and
women served in the war, but served in a segregated
armed forces. In 1948 the
President Harry S. Truman (pictured at left) decided to
ban segregation in the armed forces. Using his power as
commander-in-chief, Truman issued an executive order to
the military integrating white and black units and
creating a precedent that would give momentum to a
growing civil rights movement into the 1950's. As a
result, when US forces fought in the Korean conflict
from 1950-1953, black and white soldiers did so
side-by-side for the first time in American history.
President Truman's decision to fire Gen.
Douglas MacArthur:
Reflecting a US policy of
containment, the Korean conflict sought to defend South
Korea against
an invasion by the communist North Koreans in 1950.
Under the banner of the United Nations General Douglas
MacArthur (pictured at right) lead US and international
forces into battle on the Korean peninsula. MacArthur
was a hero of World War II, having led US forces in the
Pacific Theatre and commander of the US forces in
occupied Japan following Japanese surrender. He was very
popular among the American people, and very outspoken on
this aims in the war.
MacArthur
and Truman disagreed about the scope and aim of the
Korean War. MacArthur envisioned a wider conflict that
sought to oust Chinese communism as well as that in
Korea, as well as calling for the possible use of atomic
bombs to achieve these ends. Truman focused on the
containment of communism at the 38th parallel in Korea
(the dividing line at which the war had started), and
ordered MacArthur to cease his calls in the press for a
wider conflict. MacArthur refused and Truman relieved
him of command in Korea, prompting the headline
"Truman Fires MacArthur".
Constitutional
Examples:
-
Civilian
Control of the Military
The president is Commander-in-Chief of all US
armed forces and technically a civilian (not a
member of the military establishment). This
Constitutional provision was intended to keep
military power under political control and
ultimately accountable to an elected official (the
President), selected by the people of the United
States, not an un-elected military leadership.
Eisenhower's
decision to integrate Central High in Little Rock, AK:
 President
Dwight D. Eisenhower's decision to enforce the Supreme
Court's desegregation order serve as a good example of
domestic use of a president's Commander-in-chief powers.
Following the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown
v. Board of Education (1954) all US schools were to
end racial segregation with "all deliberate
speed". In 1957 a stand off
over the issue occurred in Little Rock Arkansas, as the
Arkansas Governor Orval E. Faubus refused to allow 9
black students to attend Central High School. He called
out Arkansas National Guard troops to block the students
from attending the school on opening day. President
Eisenhower used his power as Commander-in-chief,
deciding to place the Arkansas National Guard under his
federal authority. The result was Eisenhower using the
National Guard to enforce the order, accompanying the 9
black students into a now integrated Central High (see
image above).
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