vcczar Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 This ranks presidents by militarism, threat of military, military build up, and aggressive rhetoric or demeaning language towards other countries. It also takes into account avoiding wars, seeking peace, reducing military, etc. Peaceful actions will reduce bellicosity. For instance, John Adams gets a lot of credit for being almost the only Federalist seeking peace in the Quasi-War. He bucked his entire party and likely the majority of the country that wanted an all-out war against France--even some Jeffersonians were for it. JQ Adams might be the only president to serve when no provocative actions, no minor wars (few engagements with native americans), etc. He was focused almost entirely on domestic, trade, science, and exploration. Ranked in order of least bellicose to most bellicose: JQ Adams Washington Monroe Coolidge Hoover Harding Tyler T Roosevelt A Johnson Grant Hayes Cleveland Taft Biden *so far* Carter J Adams Garfield B Harrison WH Harrison Fillmore Jackson Trump Arthur Ford FDR Pierce Van Buren Taylor Clinton Buchanan Jefferson Lincoln Madison Truman Eisenhower Obama Reagan JFK GHW Bush Wilson McKinley Polk Nixon LBJ GW Bush Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vcczar Posted April 18, 2021 Author Share Posted April 18, 2021 14 hours ago, Patine said: Shouldn't Tyler be notably higher, given, while he didn't pull the trigger on Polk's infamous expansion (and threats of it if the Oregon Territory dispute wasn't resolved peacefully), he seemed quite in favour of much of it, but didn't engage in such things himself, largely, it seems, because of a majority of non-expansionist Whigs dominating Congress, and he wasn't a 20th and 21st Century President who felt comfortable with starting a war by Executive Action alone (or so I can gather). Yeah, that's why he's ranked as high as #7. Harding, Hoover, Coolidge are higher because they saw a massive reduction in the military, resulting in an unfulfilled pledge to not use the war as an instrument of policy. Tyler still had multiple "Indian Wars" going on. Harding, Hoover, and Coolidge still occupied some of the "Banana Republics," however, which is why they aren't higher. Monroe's Monroe Doctrine could have potentially provoked a war, which is why he's below Washington and JQ Adams. Washington had the NW Indian War but he also declared neutrality in the Fr Rev and made peace with UK. As stated, JQ Adams almost completely ignored foreign policy outside of trade. He also declared US policy towards Indians brutal and even tried to remedy the policy, which would be undone with Jackson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hestia Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 How is Biden 14 and Obama 36 🤔 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vcczar Posted April 18, 2021 Author Share Posted April 18, 2021 10 minutes ago, Hestia said: How is Biden 14 and Obama 36 🤔 Biden has been president for 3 months. Obama for 8 years -- lots of droning and military engagements in that time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hestia Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 Just now, vcczar said: Biden has been president for 3 months. Obama for 8 years -- lots of droning and military engagements in that time. OH 😄 I accidentally read it most to least, not least to most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pilight Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 I guess Teddy needed a bigger stick to rank lower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPotatoTed Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 (edited) You're doing my boy W dirty. Ha. He campaigned on stopping Clinton's interventionist ways. But we were attacked. He was one of the few Presidents to ever preside over us actually being attacked by a foreign force, and it happened very early in his Presidency so it directly dictated the remaining 7.5 years of his Presidency. He didn't choose the bellicose life. The bellicose life chose him. Edited April 18, 2021 by MrPotatoTed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hestia Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 4 minutes ago, MrPotatoTed said: You're doing my boy W dirty. Ha. He campaigned on stopping Clinton's interventionist ways. But we were attacked. He was one of the few Presidents to ever preside over us actually being attacked by a foreign force, and it happened very early in his Presidency so it directly dictated the remaining 7.5 years of his Presidency. He didn't choose the bellicose life. The bellicose life chose him. Uh...interesting take 😛 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pringles Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 I think Dick Cheney should be an honorable mention. Maybe even replace Bush II. 😛 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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