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Answering your question proved a bit tricky, but using a combination of methods we managed to get to the bottom of the matter. First, we looked for presidents who sought reelection when America was at war. We compared election results from 1789 to 2000 with the dates of major wars in which the United States was involved. Then we consulted the Columbia Encyclopedia on Yahoo! Reference for specifics about war dates and how elections were affected. Finally, we cross-checked Yahoo!'s Presidency
and Presidential Elections categories to round out our research. Here's what we learned: Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, and the Civil War began in 1861. Lincoln was reelected by a large majority in 1864. The war ended in April 9, 1865, and the president was assassinated on April 14, 1865. William McKinley led the U.S. through the Spanish-American War in 1898 and was reelected in 1900 during the Philippine-American War (1899-1902). McKinley was assassinated in 1901. In 1941, during Franklin D. Roosevelt's third term, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. entered World War II. The president was easily reelected to a fourth term during the war in
1944, but he died before the war ended in 1945. Richard Nixon inherited the Vietnam War from his predecessors when he was elected in 1968. Nixon continued the war in Southeast Asia while pursuing peace talks, and he was reelected in 1972. The next year, the U.S. withdrew troops from the area. Thus, four out of four wartime presidents were reelected. This only counts presidents whose reelection campaigns were during wartime. The Persian Gulf War occurred in January and February 1991 under the watch of George H. W. Bush. However, he wasn't up for reelection until the following year, well after the conflict had ended. He ran but was not reelected to office. In addition, several presidents presided over wars, but did not seek reelection. The War of 1812 began after James Madison
started his second term, and he chose not to run again in 1816. James Polk declared the U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848), but declined a second term. Harry S. Truman got the country into the Korean War in 1950 but didn't run for reelection. John F. Kennedy started the U.S. involvement in Vietnam in 1961. This led to war under the administration of Lyndon Johnson, who did not run for reelection. Interestingly, war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower's promise to get America out of Korea helped elect him president in 1952. Woodrow Wilson was also in the anti-war camp. World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, during Wilson's first term. He won reelection in 1916 with the Democratic campaign
slogan, "He kept us out of war." But sadly, Wilson couldn't uphold the policy indefinitely, and German attacks forced him to ask Congress for a declaration of war in 1917.
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