Primary Constitutional Conflict

The primary constitutional conflict between the Congress and the President over the decision to go to war can be traced back to the constitution. First, the American constitution divides the control of the military between the executive and the legislative branches. While the Congress has the role of providing common defense and the power to declare war, the President is the commander in chief of armed forces. The conflict exists between the two branches because there is no sole agreement on who is the actual one to declare war. Even though the President may be the commander in chief, he would have to refer to the Congress to officially declare to the world that the United States is at war. Due to such discrepancy, presidents have tested their war power numerous times and Congress also has devised a law to curb such power of the presidents as well.

The first instance in which an American president showed the primacy in war making was when pirates were attacking American ships.

At the time, president Thomas Jefferson believed he had the authority to act without the approval of Congress and fought a four year undeclared war. Since Jefferson, many presidents have sent troops into war without a formal congressional approval. As an illustration, President Harry S. Truman fought the Korean war without Congress’ direct approval. However, in order to limit such president’s power to go to war, Congress has looked to limit the president’s power to go to war through the War Powers Resolution.

There are two provisions of the War Powers Resolution that were designed to limit the President’s war making power. The first provision is if the President sent troops into combat, he or she must notify the Congress within 48 hours. This limits the President’s powers over war making because the President must receive Congress’s approval to continue to have troops in.

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As a second provision, the President must consult with the Congress whenever possible. This provision also affects the President’s war making powers because the President cannot make decisions in a war independently. Instead, the President has to resort to the Congress. As such, this second provision limits the President’s war making powers because the President is not the sole decision maker over war making.

Other than the formal powers listed previously, Congress has other constitutional power over war making. One of them is the power of the purse, which is the power of the Congress to control funding. Through this power, the Congress can kill or support a President’s war plans. If the
Congress does not agree with the President’s actions, then the Congress can decide to just not fund the President, putting an end to the President’s strategies. Second, the Congress has the power to pass laws. Through this power, the Congress has the ability to pass laws that affect war making. By doing so the Congress can cause the President to act accordingly with the Congress.

All in all, the constitutional conflicts that exist between the Congress and the President open up the debate about who has the power over war making. However, since the President’s power is greatly limited through the War Powers Resolution and the formal powers of the Congress, the President seems to need the approval of Congress to send troops into foreign lands. Even though the President can decide to send troops in short notice, the President later has to report to Congress in 2 days. Thus, the President is not completely free to decide on sending troops to war alone and needs Congressional approval before or quickly after the decision of war making.