Teaching is often a subversive act. A question I sometimes pose to students, knowing most will be flummoxed (though the sharp ones sometimes get it), is "When was the last time we declared war?" The answer, of course, is 1941, World War II. You could ask this question a different way: "How many wars have we had since World War II?" The answer: zero. (Technically.) Of course, all students know the U. S. seems to be fighting somewhere in the world all the time. So where's the disconnect?
The authors of the Constitution gave the powers to declare war to the Congress (Art. 1, Sec. 8, Clause 11). The reasoning was simple: though the president is the "commander in chief," basically in charge of the military, including during the time of war, the body of government closest to the people (i.e., democracy) had the awesome responsibility to take the country into a war. This has happened only five times in our history. However, we've had dozens of military engagements, both before but especially after, WW II that never went through the Constitutional process; this includes the two longest wars in our history going on currently in Afghanistan and Iraq. For many reasons, none of which are very convincing, the U. S. Congress has surrendered its duty to declare war. (War Without War Powers) From the Korean War, to Vietnam, to both Iraq invasions, Congress has handed over to the president, despite the horrible mistakes made along the way, the power to start and conduct with little oversight the country's major military engagements.
As the Trump administration is warming up for another possible war in the Middle East with Iran, many in Congress are trying to reel in those unconstitutional presidential powers. There are currently bipartisan efforts to prevent President Trump from going to war with Iran without a formal congressional declaration. These are commendable and good for the country and for the Constitution. But it brings to mind other efforts to make the declaration of war more susceptible to American democracy.
The most ambitious effort to democratize the declaration of war was the Ludlow Amendment, introduced to Congress several times between 1935 and 1939 by Rep. Louis Ludlow (D-IN). This bold bill would change the Constitution to essentially give citizens a check on the war declaring powers Congress. In the case that the Congress declared war, the amendment would require, except in the case of the country being directly attacked first, that there be a national referendum - a vote - to approve or not the declaration. In short, a declaration of war would require the approval of the American people.
Though this might seem cumbersome and even unrealistic, especially considering the U. S. post-WW II military ventures, the Ludlow Amendment had considerable public support in the 1930s. The First World War caused a great deal of disillusionment in the U. S., just as in Europe, and ushered in a period of isolationism, at least among the American public. In the 1920s and 30s congressional hearings were heard on the causes of WW I, and "neutrality" laws were passed to prevent the country from getting into another disastrous European conflict. Though the official policy of the U. S. government was never isolationist, the feelings among the American people were strong to avoid the situations that brought us into the Great War. Ludlow was also motivated by the growing tensions between the U. S. and the growing empire of Japan, and the fear that our business and policy leaders would do what they had to, including going to war, to protect U. S. economic interests in Asia.
It would be interesting to take a poll today among Americans, after so many years of U. S. warmongering, where the people might stand on a "Ludlow Amendment." I'm confident it would be a number that would make both the President and Congress uncomfortable.
