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Civics 101

Declaring War

Civics 101

NHPR

Education, History, Supreme Court, American History, Elections, Democracy, Society & Culture, Government, Civics, Politics, Social Studies

4.62.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2022

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Who has the power to take the United States to war, and how has the definition of war changed over time?

Transcript

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0:00.0

Nick, before I ever got this wonderful job on this wonderful show, I was not a civics

0:09.4

buff.

0:10.4

Are you shocked?

0:11.9

Completely appalled.

0:12.9

However, I did have this one fact that I just loved pulling out, which was the fact

0:18.2

that the U.S. Congress has not declared war since World War II.

0:25.0

It was my makes you think, doesn't it, fact?

0:27.8

Yeah, I learned that fact in a movie theater in 1997 when I first saw Wag the Dog.

0:33.1

Two things I know to be true.

0:34.8

There's no difference between good, flon, and bad flon.

0:39.1

And there is no war.

0:41.0

We show and then I say confirm there are no nuclear devices in the Canadian border.

0:45.6

And that fact is bizarre to comprehend, because of course we have been to war a bunch of

0:51.0

times since then, right?

0:52.6

Yeah.

0:53.6

Makes you think, doesn't it?

0:55.6

This World War II off the top of my head, we've got the Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf

1:00.5

War, War in Iraq, and the War in Afghanistan.

1:04.4

So what I hope you are thinking right now is how is that possible?

1:08.8

Given the fact that we haven't actually declared war in so long, the way the framers

1:15.2

intended it for Congress to make an official declaration essentially seems like a thing

1:20.0

of the past.

...

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