Has anyone ever been elected president using an anti-war platform?

[NNN0LHI]

I was thinking about this last night and I could not think of one instance. There has to be some case of this happening over this countries 200 year history, but I sure can't think of when. Can anyone? Thanks in advance.

Don

[JaneQPublic]

1. Remember LBJ's "daisy" ad against Goldwater?

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0116-06.htm

The original Daisy ad aired only once, during the 1964 presidential race. Produced by the campaign of incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson, it depicted a 6-year-old girl plucking petals from a daisy -- along with a missile launch countdown and then a nuclear mushroom cloud. The suggestion was that if elected president, Republican Barry Goldwater might lead the United States to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Goldwater lost by a wide margin.

[Alopenia]

10. Given the JFK coattails, Johnson could have beaten God in '64

And the suggestion that Johnson was a peacnik is utterly ludicrous

[NNN0LHI]

12. And as I remember back in '64 that was more of an anti-nut ad...

...than an anti-war ad, suggesting Goldwater was crazy enough to get us involved in a nuclear war if he got elected

Don.

[lcordero]

2. I think Shroeder (from Germany) was elected on an

anti-Bush, anti-war platform. Does that count?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. I believe Wilson and Roosevelt both ran on keeping us out of war.

Didn't work out that way, though.

[dsc]

4. Woodrow Wilson and FDR

both promised to stay out of WW1 and WW2 respectively. They clearly didn't but in especially Wilson's case it played a huge role in his victory. The anti WW2 pledge also helped FDR win in 40 which was a tough race for him due to the third term thing.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Beat you by "that much."

[dsc]

7. yep

[JaneQPublic]

6. And didn't Nixon run promising "a secret plan" to get us out of Vietnam?

I can't recall if that was during the `68 or `72 election.

Looking down the list of posts on this thread, it appears our most outspoken "anti-war" presidents, ironically, ultimately became our most noted "war" presidents.

[charlie]

8. Nixon's "secret plan" to withdraw from Vietnam

n/t

[NNN0LHI]

9. Here is Nixons "secret plan" to end the war

Dec. 30. 1972: Pres. Richard Nixon orders end to North Vietnamese bombing. The campaign was a last attempt to get North Vietnam to submit to the US: 18 days of carpet-bombing of homes, hospitals, and civilians of Hanoi and Haiphong through Christmas. For the first time, B-52 pilots refuse to fly missions.

[charlie]

15. A-yup

Nixon was a lying shitweasel (and everyone knew it), but he did promise in 1968 to put an end to the "Democrats' war." That, and restoring law and order in the country were the two most notable pledges of his campaign.

[salin]

16. didn't Nixon increase troops

by starting efforts in Laos and Cambodia, but because he was decreasing numbers in Vietnam - claim that he was decreasing troops?

[charlie]

17. No, after his first few months in office

he consistently reduced the number of troops in Vietnam, even including his secret incursions into Laos and Cambodia. But being that there was initially a staggering half million US soldiers over there (over 1 in every 400 people in the country!), it took until 1972 before troop levels approached the 100,000(!!) mark.

[stickdog]

11. War is Hellacious! (nt)

[randr]

13. Nixon pretended to

He had a rat fink traitor from inside the Johnson administration feed him information that gave him the appearance of having an inside track to the Peace Talks, taking place in Paris. This same operative was able to derail the Peace Talks long enough for the public to buy the lies. This very same traitor to Americas' military forces was anointed "Secretary of State" upon the frauds election.
Tens of thousands more Americans and close to 1,000,000 S.E. Asians were subsequently murdered.

[IndianaGreen]

14. President Wilson in 1916, President Johnson in 1964, FDR in 1940

While FDR can be excused by the fact we were attacked by the Empire of Japan in 1941, Presidents Wilson and Johnson all ran on peace planks, and both plunged our nation into idiotic wars that only served to line the pockets of the arms merchants.

[Johnyawl]

19. FDR CANNOT be excused

FDR was manuvering us into the path of war even as he spoke these words in 1940; "I promise you that American boys will not die on foriegn soil!"

He lied just as much as Wilson or LBJ, he just had better reason.

We were already supplying England with war material, our Merchant Marine running a gauntlet of German U-Boats. FDR was hoping for a 'Lusitania' incident to provoke the American people.

You cannot blame FDR, he knew war was inevitable, and yet he was faced with an American public which was isolationist, and opposed to another war in Europe. In 1940 Russia was still enjoying the benefits of her non-agression pact with the nazis; uninvolved in what Hitler was doing to western Europe, and busy gobbling up the Baltic states, and choking on Finland. England, the remnants of the French, Dutch, Polish, and Norwegian armies, along with Canada, and the Anzacs were all there was in 1940 to resist Hitler and Mussolini. FDR knew that they couldn't win without us.

The last "real" anti-war candidate to run for president was George McGovern in 1972. He lost 48 states.

[RichM]

18. Ike gained a lot of traction in 1952 by promising to "go to Korea."

(meaning, to visit it personally). He probably would have won anyway, but this was a popular move at the time.

[Terwilliger]

20. I don't know but I'd be surprised if it had happened

America would never support an anti-war candidate fully because of the possibility that the wars we have already fought may have been unjust. Americans as a whole will not voluntarily concede that actions already undertaken may be unjustified. It's close in relation to what happened the day the war started last year...once there were bullets flying, Americans would not concede that they might be wrong.