In 1950 when North Korean communists invaded the Republic of Korea, an American client state to the south, Truman rushed into hostilities against the communists even though they did not menace American security. He circumvented both congress and the United Nations Security Council. When questioned if he had arrogated unto himself the authority to declare war, he called the intervention a police action that did not require a declaration. He and his Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, dismissed that constitutional requirement by claiming that as commander in chief the president possessed an inherent prerogative to make war. They also justified congressional sanction as unnecessary because opinion polls indicated broad popular support for the president. The public, congress, and the strong-president cult all applauded Truman's unilateral war making.
When the conflict stalemated, casualties mounted, and costs escalated, the polls showed a sharp drop in approval for what many now called "Truman's War." The president and his advisers then cited other small-scale military ventures as proper precedents for his war-making. Legal scholars pointed out correctly that previous executive breaches of the constitution did not validate subsequent violations.
Truman left office virtually repudiated but not because he had launched the nation's first large-scale undeclared conflict and had amplified the presidential war beyond anything attempted by his predecessors. He lost favor because he had failed to win the war quickly and cheaply. Later, though, sympathetic biographers attempted to build up his reputation by calling his macho posturing courageous and by discounting the vast death and destruction he had caused.
When the conflict stalemated, casualties mounted, and costs escalated, the polls showed a sharp drop in approval for what many now called "Truman's War." The president and his advisers then cited other small-scale military ventures as proper precedents for his war-making. Legal scholars pointed out correctly that previous executive breaches of the constitution did not validate subsequent violations.
Truman left office virtually repudiated but not because he had launched the nation's first large-scale undeclared conflict and had amplified the presidential war beyond anything attempted by his predecessors. He lost favor because he had failed to win the war quickly and cheaply. Later, though, sympathetic biographers attempted to build up his reputation by calling his macho posturing courageous and by discounting the vast death and destruction he had caused.