"Best US President as Commander-in-Chief: Lincoln!" Topic

You were asked – TMP link

Who was the best wartime/military leader?

In the final round of voting:

30% said "16. Abraham Lincoln"
23% said "32. Franklin D. Roosevelt"
19% said "1. George Washington"

Washington for me at 1.

Roosevelt would not appear for me.

I agree with the poll overall

Lincoln saved the Union & FDR guided us through WWII

Eisenhower had more difficult decisions. Just my opinion. A position for FDR is strong as well. I do not support the Lincoln position. He made or allowed too many poor General and command assignments. May have extended the war.

Have to agree – Lincoln held things together at a very tough time – in retrospect some of his decisions may not have stood the test of time but they were made with best intentions and incomplete information

It is hard to argue against any of these three, with either Lincoln or Washington on top. After this things fall off considerably for me, but Eisenhower is my modern favorite by far.

I really can't say Washington as number one. What wars occurred during his administration? An Indian war on west that saw St. Clair's army slaughtered.. Plus, the army was very small. Not much to really manage or do much with.

The Revolutionary War ended in 1783.
Washington didn't become president until 1789

What about Madison?

As CoC, Washington personally led the armed response to the Whiskey Rebellion, ending it without a shot (and asserting Federal authority to issue and collect a tax). Don't think there's been a President since who has done anything like that.

The catch in all of this is the poll is about "…in time of war."

Many very excellent presidents did not serve during effective war time (though a lot did). Eisenhower, for example, was President during a time of peace, setting aside the Cold War, of course.

FDR wouldn't make my top 10 even. Agree with Lincoln.

I found the poll poorly worded. Were we rating presidents solely on how well they handled military matter while they were president? Or were we also considering their military careers (if any) before they were president? It would make a big difference in my response.

No matter how you cut it all three men must be in the pantheon of American greats. If they were alive today they would die of shame! Today the word "honor" does not have meaning and integrity is something of the past.

As CoC, Washington personally led the armed response to the Whiskey Rebellion,

I believe Washington was only general-in-chief then, as it was during the Adams administration, was it not? (So Adams was commander-in-chief.)

Ronald Reagan's grand strategy brought down the Soviet Union and won our longest war.

Actually Ronald Reagan was simply continuing the 'Strategy of Containment' initiated during the Truman administration. He might have sped things up by a few years but he deserves more kudos for negotiating with the Soviets than for his big military build-up.

Reagan's military buildup is what made the negotiations possible. Gorbachev realized the USSR couldn't compete with what the US was doing, and that brought him to the table. Classic stick-and-carrot move by Reagan.
Too many diplomats assume that peace comes from talking nicely to a bully. No, peace comes from showing the bully that you've got a fully loaded weapon, and then suggesting that talking nicely is the better option than having you pull the trigger.

Washington was not a wartime President. Lincoln and FDR are my two choices. A distant third would be George H.W. Bush for the first Gulf War. Where would Polk fit into this? He was President during a successful war.

James Knox Polk

No other president went to war with ambitions of conquest and succeeded in gaining territory from a sovereign nation as Polk did.

Granted it was messy, but a contiguous United States border was created.

Kim