c onclusion 349A fourth puzzle is why wartime presidents, even those elected by
huge margins, suffer the defeat of their domestic agenda and the
undoing of their reform aspirations. Johnson entered the Vietnam War
with the most sweeping program, intending through his Great Society
to outdo even the New Deal, only to see his program derailed by late
- An argument can be made that both Wilson and Roosevelt had
fi nished their domestic projects before embarking on war, but certainly
their supporters believed otherwise. Most Progressives enthusiastically
participated in the mobilization effort in 1917–1918 because they
regarded their activities as of a piece with earlier social reforms, and
Wilson did nothing to disabuse them of this notion. Roosevelt
continued to speak the language of the New Deal during the Second
World War. Notwithstanding his claim that Dr. New Deal had passed
the torch to Dr. Win-the-War, his Four Freedoms invoked New Deal
themes and his 1944 opening campaign speech promised to take gov-
ernment promotion of economic prosperity and security to new
lengths. New Dealers expected reform to defi ne the postwar era and
used agencies such as the National Resources Planning Board to set the
stage accordingly. Bush sought to pursue his agenda of reducing the
scale of government while the United States fought wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
Yet presidents have seen their domestic initiatives unravel amid mil-
itary confl ict. One partial explanation lies in the cost of war and the
competition for scarce resources. Lincoln capitalized on fi scal circum-
stances that did not recur under his wartime successors. Key elements
of the Civil War Republican program, such as the homesteading law,
called for no direct federal expenditures, so they did not compete for
funding with the war. Where presidential domestic agendas come with
a price tag, however, programs may be crowded out by military outlays.
Yet cost alone does not suffi ce to account for the exhaustion of reform
energy. Several confl icts have occurred in periods of rapid economic
growth; indeed, the wars themselves have stimulated that economic
expansion. World War II stands out because military expenditures
fi nally lifted the economy out of the Great Depression, but the wars in
Vietnam and Iraq were also accompanied by a robust economy. In the
latter case, the American economy was suffi ciently strong that policy
makers decided they could aff ord to retain the massive tax cuts that had