228 PART THREE • insTiTuTions of AmERiCAn GovERnmEnT
Commander in Chief
The role of the president
as supreme commander of
the military forces of the
United States and of the
state National Guard units
when they are called into
federal service.
War Powers Resolution
A law passed in 1973
spelling out the conditions
under which the president
can commit troops without
congressional approval.The Supreme Court upheld the president’s power to grant reprieves and pardons in
a 1925 case concerning a pardon granted by the president to an individual convicted of
contempt of court. A federal circuit court had contended that only judges had the author-
ity to convict individuals for contempt of court when court orders were violated and that
the courts should be free from interference by the executive branch. The Supreme Court
simply stated that the president could grant reprieves or pardons for all offenses “either
before trial, during trial, or after trial, by individuals, or by classes, conditionally or abso-
lutely, and this without modification or regulation by Congress.”^5Commander in Chief
The president, according to the Constitution, “shall be Commander in Chief of the Army
and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the
actual Service of the United States.” In other words, the armed forces are under civilian,
rather than military, control.Wartime Powers. Those who wrote the Constitution had George Washington in
mind when they made the president the commander in chief. Although we do not
expect our president to lead the troops into battle, presidents as commanders in chief
have wielded dramatic power. Harry Truman made the extraordinary decision to drop
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to force Japan to surrender and
thus bring World War II to an end. Lyndon Johnson ordered bombing missions against
North Vietnam in the 1960s, and he personally selected some of the targets. Richard
Nixon decided to invade Cambodia in 1970. Ronald Reagan sent troops to Lebanon
and Grenada in 1983 and ordered U.S. fighter planes to attack Libya in 1986. George
H. W. Bush sent troops to Panama in 1989 and to the Middle East in 1990. Bill Clinton
sent troops to Haiti in 1994 and to Bosnia in 1995, ordered missile attacks
on alleged terrorist bases in 1998, and sent American planes to bomb Serbia
in 1999. George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan in 2002 and
of Iraq in 2003, and most recently, Barack Obama ordered more troops into
Afghanistan in 2009 and authorized air strikes in Libya in 2011.
The president is the ultimate decision maker in military matters. Everywhere
the president goes, so too goes the “football”—a briefcase filled with all of the
codes necessary to order a nuclear attack. Only the president has the power
to order the use of nuclear force.
As commander in chief, the president exercises more author-
ity than in any other role. Constitutionally, Congress has the sole
power to declare war, but the president can send the armed forces
into situations that are certainly the equivalent of war. Harry
Truman dispatched troops to Korea in 1950. Kennedy,
Johnson, and Nixon waged an undeclared war in Southeast
Asia, where more than 58,000 Americans were killed and
300,000 were wounded. In neither of these situations had
Congress declared war.The War Powers Resolution. In an attempt to gain more con-
trol over such military activities, in 1973 Congress passed the
War Powers resolution—over President Nixon’s veto—President Harry
Truman (1945–1953, at
right), stands with General Dwight
Eisenhower in 1951. A year later,
Eisenhower successfully ran for
president. (George Skadding/Time
Life Pictures/Getty Images)- Ex parte Grossman, 267 U.S. 87 (1925).
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