Has more than 1/3 of Congress ever opposed a war?











up vote
3
down vote

favorite
1












Basically all the bills to start a war had 90-99% congressional support from what I've seen on Wikipedia. I just wonder if there was any war that 30% or more of Congress opposed starting. I am only asking about the start of the war not its continuation. Wars always have overwhelming support but then wind down. Also exclude cases like Vietnam where there was no congress at all.






united-states







share|improve this question









New contributor




user34693 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 1




    In what sense was there "no Congress at all" during the Vietnam War?
    – Aaron Brick
    4 hours ago






  • 5




    @AaronBrick I think they mean that there was no formal declaration of war. But there was a congressional vote authorizing military action, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 88-2 / 416-0.
    – Schwern
    3 hours ago






  • 7




    Define war. Officially we have only ever been in a handful of wars. 5? the last one being WWII.
    – sofa general
    3 hours ago















up vote
3
down vote

favorite
1












Basically all the bills to start a war had 90-99% congressional support from what I've seen on Wikipedia. I just wonder if there was any war that 30% or more of Congress opposed starting. I am only asking about the start of the war not its continuation. Wars always have overwhelming support but then wind down. Also exclude cases like Vietnam where there was no congress at all.






united-states







share|improve this question









New contributor




user34693 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 1




    In what sense was there "no Congress at all" during the Vietnam War?
    – Aaron Brick
    4 hours ago






  • 5




    @AaronBrick I think they mean that there was no formal declaration of war. But there was a congressional vote authorizing military action, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 88-2 / 416-0.
    – Schwern
    3 hours ago






  • 7




    Define war. Officially we have only ever been in a handful of wars. 5? the last one being WWII.
    – sofa general
    3 hours ago













up vote
3
down vote

favorite
1









up vote
3
down vote

favorite
1






1





Basically all the bills to start a war had 90-99% congressional support from what I've seen on Wikipedia. I just wonder if there was any war that 30% or more of Congress opposed starting. I am only asking about the start of the war not its continuation. Wars always have overwhelming support but then wind down. Also exclude cases like Vietnam where there was no congress at all.






united-states







share|improve this question









New contributor




user34693 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











Basically all the bills to start a war had 90-99% congressional support from what I've seen on Wikipedia. I just wonder if there was any war that 30% or more of Congress opposed starting. I am only asking about the start of the war not its continuation. Wars always have overwhelming support but then wind down. Also exclude cases like Vietnam where there was no congress at all.






united-states




united-states






share|improve this question









New contributor




user34693 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




user34693 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 3 hours ago









Steve Bird

12.5k35365




12.5k35365






New contributor




user34693 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked 4 hours ago









user34693

161




161




New contributor




user34693 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





user34693 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






user34693 is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 1




    In what sense was there "no Congress at all" during the Vietnam War?
    – Aaron Brick
    4 hours ago






  • 5




    @AaronBrick I think they mean that there was no formal declaration of war. But there was a congressional vote authorizing military action, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 88-2 / 416-0.
    – Schwern
    3 hours ago






  • 7




    Define war. Officially we have only ever been in a handful of wars. 5? the last one being WWII.
    – sofa general
    3 hours ago














  • 1




    In what sense was there "no Congress at all" during the Vietnam War?
    – Aaron Brick
    4 hours ago






  • 5




    @AaronBrick I think they mean that there was no formal declaration of war. But there was a congressional vote authorizing military action, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 88-2 / 416-0.
    – Schwern
    3 hours ago






  • 7




    Define war. Officially we have only ever been in a handful of wars. 5? the last one being WWII.
    – sofa general
    3 hours ago








1




1




In what sense was there "no Congress at all" during the Vietnam War?
– Aaron Brick
4 hours ago




In what sense was there "no Congress at all" during the Vietnam War?
– Aaron Brick
4 hours ago




5




5




@AaronBrick I think they mean that there was no formal declaration of war. But there was a congressional vote authorizing military action, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 88-2 / 416-0.
– Schwern
3 hours ago




@AaronBrick I think they mean that there was no formal declaration of war. But there was a congressional vote authorizing military action, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 88-2 / 416-0.
– Schwern
3 hours ago




7




7




Define war. Officially we have only ever been in a handful of wars. 5? the last one being WWII.
– sofa general
3 hours ago




Define war. Officially we have only ever been in a handful of wars. 5? the last one being WWII.
– sofa general
3 hours ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
9
down vote













It depends on how you define "war".



Formal Declarations of War



This is easy enough to verify by looking at the votes for formal declaration of war by the US Congress.





  • War of 1812: Senate 19-13, House 79-49. 38.75% opposed


  • Spanish-American War: Senate 42-35, House 310-6. 45.5% of the Senate opposed, worth noting.


Post-WWI you get near-unanimous votes for war.



Undeclared Wars Which Required a Congressional Vote



The US has lots of these and it's unfair in the modern era to exclude them. Formal declarations of war by the US ended after WWII. Instead of a declaration of war they require an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) from Congress to fund and prolong the president's initial military decision. It's a war. We can look at those votes.





  • MNF Lebanon: Senate 54-46, House 253-156. 39.7% opposed


  • Gulf War, 1991: Senate 52-47, House 250-183. 43.2% opposed


  • Iraq War, 2003: Senate 77-23, House 296-132. 29.4% opposed.


Congress voted on the Vietnam War with the near-unanimous Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the president authority




to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom







share|improve this answer























  • Great research. I had no idea that Lebanon and first Gulf War had so much opposition. The Iraqi War had (unfortunately) far_less_ opposition than I had thought
    – javadba
    1 hour ago






  • 2




    About that large vote against the Gulf War: After it went rather well, a lot of politicians who voted against it had a really hard time. That's a large part of the reason why the vote against the second "Iraq War" was so much lower. Of course a lot of politicians who voted for that one had a hard time. Lesson hopefully being that perhaps its better to just vote your conscience on life-and-death matters.
    – T.E.D.♦
    1 hour ago













Your Answer








StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "324"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});






user34693 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhistory.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f49780%2fhas-more-than-1-3-of-congress-ever-opposed-a-war%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes








up vote
9
down vote













It depends on how you define "war".



Formal Declarations of War



This is easy enough to verify by looking at the votes for formal declaration of war by the US Congress.





  • War of 1812: Senate 19-13, House 79-49. 38.75% opposed


  • Spanish-American War: Senate 42-35, House 310-6. 45.5% of the Senate opposed, worth noting.


Post-WWI you get near-unanimous votes for war.



Undeclared Wars Which Required a Congressional Vote



The US has lots of these and it's unfair in the modern era to exclude them. Formal declarations of war by the US ended after WWII. Instead of a declaration of war they require an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) from Congress to fund and prolong the president's initial military decision. It's a war. We can look at those votes.





  • MNF Lebanon: Senate 54-46, House 253-156. 39.7% opposed


  • Gulf War, 1991: Senate 52-47, House 250-183. 43.2% opposed


  • Iraq War, 2003: Senate 77-23, House 296-132. 29.4% opposed.


Congress voted on the Vietnam War with the near-unanimous Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the president authority




to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom







share|improve this answer























  • Great research. I had no idea that Lebanon and first Gulf War had so much opposition. The Iraqi War had (unfortunately) far_less_ opposition than I had thought
    – javadba
    1 hour ago






  • 2




    About that large vote against the Gulf War: After it went rather well, a lot of politicians who voted against it had a really hard time. That's a large part of the reason why the vote against the second "Iraq War" was so much lower. Of course a lot of politicians who voted for that one had a hard time. Lesson hopefully being that perhaps its better to just vote your conscience on life-and-death matters.
    – T.E.D.♦
    1 hour ago

















up vote
9
down vote













It depends on how you define "war".



Formal Declarations of War



This is easy enough to verify by looking at the votes for formal declaration of war by the US Congress.





  • War of 1812: Senate 19-13, House 79-49. 38.75% opposed


  • Spanish-American War: Senate 42-35, House 310-6. 45.5% of the Senate opposed, worth noting.


Post-WWI you get near-unanimous votes for war.



Undeclared Wars Which Required a Congressional Vote



The US has lots of these and it's unfair in the modern era to exclude them. Formal declarations of war by the US ended after WWII. Instead of a declaration of war they require an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) from Congress to fund and prolong the president's initial military decision. It's a war. We can look at those votes.





  • MNF Lebanon: Senate 54-46, House 253-156. 39.7% opposed


  • Gulf War, 1991: Senate 52-47, House 250-183. 43.2% opposed


  • Iraq War, 2003: Senate 77-23, House 296-132. 29.4% opposed.


Congress voted on the Vietnam War with the near-unanimous Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the president authority




to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom







share|improve this answer























  • Great research. I had no idea that Lebanon and first Gulf War had so much opposition. The Iraqi War had (unfortunately) far_less_ opposition than I had thought
    – javadba
    1 hour ago






  • 2




    About that large vote against the Gulf War: After it went rather well, a lot of politicians who voted against it had a really hard time. That's a large part of the reason why the vote against the second "Iraq War" was so much lower. Of course a lot of politicians who voted for that one had a hard time. Lesson hopefully being that perhaps its better to just vote your conscience on life-and-death matters.
    – T.E.D.♦
    1 hour ago















up vote
9
down vote










up vote
9
down vote









It depends on how you define "war".



Formal Declarations of War



This is easy enough to verify by looking at the votes for formal declaration of war by the US Congress.





  • War of 1812: Senate 19-13, House 79-49. 38.75% opposed


  • Spanish-American War: Senate 42-35, House 310-6. 45.5% of the Senate opposed, worth noting.


Post-WWI you get near-unanimous votes for war.



Undeclared Wars Which Required a Congressional Vote



The US has lots of these and it's unfair in the modern era to exclude them. Formal declarations of war by the US ended after WWII. Instead of a declaration of war they require an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) from Congress to fund and prolong the president's initial military decision. It's a war. We can look at those votes.





  • MNF Lebanon: Senate 54-46, House 253-156. 39.7% opposed


  • Gulf War, 1991: Senate 52-47, House 250-183. 43.2% opposed


  • Iraq War, 2003: Senate 77-23, House 296-132. 29.4% opposed.


Congress voted on the Vietnam War with the near-unanimous Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the president authority




to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom







share|improve this answer














It depends on how you define "war".



Formal Declarations of War



This is easy enough to verify by looking at the votes for formal declaration of war by the US Congress.





  • War of 1812: Senate 19-13, House 79-49. 38.75% opposed


  • Spanish-American War: Senate 42-35, House 310-6. 45.5% of the Senate opposed, worth noting.


Post-WWI you get near-unanimous votes for war.



Undeclared Wars Which Required a Congressional Vote



The US has lots of these and it's unfair in the modern era to exclude them. Formal declarations of war by the US ended after WWII. Instead of a declaration of war they require an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) from Congress to fund and prolong the president's initial military decision. It's a war. We can look at those votes.





  • MNF Lebanon: Senate 54-46, House 253-156. 39.7% opposed


  • Gulf War, 1991: Senate 52-47, House 250-183. 43.2% opposed


  • Iraq War, 2003: Senate 77-23, House 296-132. 29.4% opposed.


Congress voted on the Vietnam War with the near-unanimous Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving the president authority




to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom








share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 2 hours ago









Kerry L

3,43511247




3,43511247










answered 3 hours ago









Schwern

35.4k993136




35.4k993136












  • Great research. I had no idea that Lebanon and first Gulf War had so much opposition. The Iraqi War had (unfortunately) far_less_ opposition than I had thought
    – javadba
    1 hour ago






  • 2




    About that large vote against the Gulf War: After it went rather well, a lot of politicians who voted against it had a really hard time. That's a large part of the reason why the vote against the second "Iraq War" was so much lower. Of course a lot of politicians who voted for that one had a hard time. Lesson hopefully being that perhaps its better to just vote your conscience on life-and-death matters.
    – T.E.D.♦
    1 hour ago




















  • Great research. I had no idea that Lebanon and first Gulf War had so much opposition. The Iraqi War had (unfortunately) far_less_ opposition than I had thought
    – javadba
    1 hour ago






  • 2




    About that large vote against the Gulf War: After it went rather well, a lot of politicians who voted against it had a really hard time. That's a large part of the reason why the vote against the second "Iraq War" was so much lower. Of course a lot of politicians who voted for that one had a hard time. Lesson hopefully being that perhaps its better to just vote your conscience on life-and-death matters.
    – T.E.D.♦
    1 hour ago


















Great research. I had no idea that Lebanon and first Gulf War had so much opposition. The Iraqi War had (unfortunately) far_less_ opposition than I had thought
– javadba
1 hour ago




Great research. I had no idea that Lebanon and first Gulf War had so much opposition. The Iraqi War had (unfortunately) far_less_ opposition than I had thought
– javadba
1 hour ago




2




2




About that large vote against the Gulf War: After it went rather well, a lot of politicians who voted against it had a really hard time. That's a large part of the reason why the vote against the second "Iraq War" was so much lower. Of course a lot of politicians who voted for that one had a hard time. Lesson hopefully being that perhaps its better to just vote your conscience on life-and-death matters.
– T.E.D.♦
1 hour ago






About that large vote against the Gulf War: After it went rather well, a lot of politicians who voted against it had a really hard time. That's a large part of the reason why the vote against the second "Iraq War" was so much lower. Of course a lot of politicians who voted for that one had a hard time. Lesson hopefully being that perhaps its better to just vote your conscience on life-and-death matters.
– T.E.D.♦
1 hour ago












user34693 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.










draft saved

draft discarded


















user34693 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













user34693 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












user34693 is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
















Thanks for contributing an answer to History Stack Exchange!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid …



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.





Some of your past answers have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from answering.


Please pay close attention to the following guidance:


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid …



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhistory.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f49780%2fhas-more-than-1-3-of-congress-ever-opposed-a-war%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







-

Popular posts from this blog

Accessing regular linux commands in Huawei's Dopra Linux

Image
4 Backstory: I have a Huawei HG8245 router in my house and I want to change the default username/password. I've tried following this guide but the config file always gets reset. My ISP isn't helping either so I'm looking for other ways to accomplish this. The router has telnet access so this seems like a way to change the credentials. The first shell I gain access to looks like this: WAP> Pressing "?" gives me a list of available commands which I've pasted here, the two interesting ones are "su" and "shell". I can't seem to get su access, even after logging in as root (challenge password prompt, and then nothing happens), but shell gives me a proper linux shell. WAP>shell BusyBox v1.18.4 (2017-12-26 17:06:34 CST) built-in shell (ash) Enter 'hel...
Read more

Can't connect RFCOMM socket: Host is down

Image
up vote 3 down vote favorite I have bluez 5.4.3 and I am attempting to communicate with a ble device through minicom. These two deceives (my computer and a bluno nano) are alreadt paired and this has been my method so far. #bluetoothctl # pair xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx # exit Everything is working well so far then... #sudo rfcomm connect /dev/rfcomm0 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx 1 & [1] 3665 Can't connect RFCOMM socket: Host is down Does anyone know how to resolve this issue? Any help would be very much appreciated. bluetooth bluez share | improve this question asked Feb 9 '17 at 18:46 Brandon Knape 46 2 ...
Read more

Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal Exception in Interrupt

Image
0 Every day this error occured on my pc, kernel panic error on interrupt, what will be the problem? linux-mint share asked 6 mins ago Vinod Selvin Vinod Selvin 1 1 New contributor Vinod Selvin is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering. Check out our Code of Conduct. add a comment ...
Read more