presidents at war Essay

Submitted By devon_thiomas
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De`Von Thomas
Professor Howell
American Government
22 April, 2013
Analysis: Presidents At War The book I read was called Presidents at War. this book follows the power use of presidents during times of war and international crisis. The book goes through different conflicts and talks about how the president was able to make the moves that he did and how the power of the president and how the title of commander in chief has changed meaning from being a field general to being a commanding troops from the other side of the country. It also helps to show the decision process behind the decisions made. Most presidentrs from Washington to Obama have used the powers that the president has been entitled to in the constitution Article two section two of the constitution it says “The president shall be the commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the united states and the militia of some states…” this may be a tad out dated from the time it was written so these powers have been changed and modified. My prime example of this is the war powers resolution. In the beginning of our country the president almost had unlimited war powers these powers have been altered and lessened as time went on but still exist today. The book seems to support the powers the presidents have even though they do admit that it has been used improperly and without being thought all the way through. My example from the book of this is the Bay of Pigs invasion. This was when President JFK sent Cuban exiles back into Cuba to help start a rebellion. The president didn’t want there to be an outright act of war. During this time the United States was going through the cold war. The Soviet Union had backed Cuba and they were under a doctorial regime. The idea was that they would send in trained Cubans to fight and help start a rebellion and they would be able to get the things that the American government wanted to get done, without getting their hands dirty. The book talks about how the invasion was slightly noticed by journalist because of the president cancelling the campaign stops and the movement of the ships in the sea surrounding Cuba. The decision to make this was one of the last options that they had to deal with the idea of the Cuban missile crisis. The first four like repeated airstrikes and attacks by ship were thought to be bad ideas because of the catastrophic repercussions that could happen if they didn’t get all of the bombs. They thought of the invasion using their own people because they wouldn’t completely nuke their own country with them in it. I think that this book is right in most of the cases that I read because I agree with the powers that the president has and all the examples follow what the constitution has in it
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