Operation Epic Fury, the aerial campaign against Iran, has been described as a “precision strike campaign,” with the White House stating it is a “combat operation.” It is far from the first combat operation described at times as a “war” without Congress actually declaring one.
Since the founding of the United States, the nation has fought in many “unofficial wars,” including the American Revolution.
It began 251 years ago on April 19, 1775, at the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and was only formally declared a rebellion against King George III the following August. When the Declaration of Independence was signed in July 1776, it still didn’t declare war on the British. Instead of a declaration of war against a sovereign nation, it made a statement of independence from one.
It set a precedent that lasts to this day. The final declaration of war by the United States Congress during World War II was issued on June 5, 1942, against Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. Instead, many of the conflicts since 1942 have been conducted via authorizations for the use of military force, which is far short of a formal declaration of war.
The Early Undeclared Wars
After gaining independence from the British, the first foreign “war” the United States fought was, in an ironic twist, against the nation that helped ensure America’s victory. From 1798-1800, the United States fought the “Quasi-War” with France, a naval conflict that followed the French government’s seizure of American ships.
The conflict was limited to actions at sea, primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of the United States, with a few minor actions in the Mediterranean and even the Indian Ocean. The seizure of American merchant vessels led Congress to reconstitute the United States Navy and to use force against France.
A year after a peace treaty was concluded with Paris, the United States Navy was first dispatched to the Mediterranean to confront the Barbary Pirates operating in the Mediterranean. It was the first major American “war” to be fought outside the New World, and marked the first time an American flag was raised in victory on foreign soil. United States Marines, led by Lt. Presley O’Bannon, marched 500 miles across the Libyan Desert from Egypt and attacked the port city of Deran to overthrow the Pasha of Tripoli, inspiring the “shores of Tripoli” in the line of the famed Marine Corps Hymn.
A Second Barbary War was fought in 1815, after which the U.S. and European nations ceased paying tribute to Algiers. It marked the end of piracy in the Mediterranean and highly elevated U.S. military prestige.
America’s Wars of the 19th Century
Although the larger conflicts of the 19th century, including the War of 1812 against the British, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War, were wars declared by Congress, other military actions were not.
Notably, this included the American Civil War, which was considered an internal rebellion rather than a war between foreign nations. President Abraham Lincoln, without prior congressional approval, called for 75,000 troops to expand the army and ordered a naval blockade after the attack on Fort Sumter. In July 1861, lawmakers retroactively approved Lincoln’s actions, which effectively declared war against the Confederates.
The Supreme Court also affirmed in the “Prize Cases” that a formal declaration wasn’t necessary for an internal rebellion. However, the Confederate Congress did formally declare war on the United States.
Further from America’s shores, the United States Navy conducted a few minor attacks in China to protect trade interests during the Second Opium War, fought by the UK and France against the Qing dynasty.
In the latter decades of the 19th century, the U.S. also took part in operations throughout Latin America, with forces landing in Panama, Nicaragua, and Argentina, again to protect U.S. assets. Washington’s policy of “gunboat diplomacy” also enforced trade agreements in China and Japan.
The Undeclared Wars of the 20th Century
The United States Congress declared war in both the First and Second World Wars; however, there were several instances in which the U.S. deployed troops without Congressional authorization.
Among those was the war in the Philippines, not against Spanish forces, but against the United States after Spain ceded the maritime Southeast Asian archipelago to the United States. The largely forgotten Philippine-American War, which technically began in the final years of the 19th century, could be seen as a portent for later American adventures. It saw U.S. troops, superiorly armed, fight insurgent forces in a distant land, with the enemy employing guerrilla tactics.
As the U.S. had obtained the Philippines from Spain and even paid Madrid $20 million, Washington deemed the conflict an “insurrection.” The U.S. didn’t recognize the Philippine Republic as a sovereign nation, although Filipino leaders did declare war.
The Philippine-American War ended with a U.S. victory, yet, just as combat operations were winding down, the U.S. faced the Moro Rebellion, an uprising by the indigenous peoples who had previously resisted Spanish rule. That conflict lasted more than a decade, only ending in June 1913, but with the formation of the Department of Mindanao and Sulu, which oversaw U.S. administration over the Muslim-dominated areas of the territory.
In the early 20th century, the U.S. military took part in numerous interventions in Latin America, and today are remembered as America’s “Banana Wars.” Those interventions were primarily carried out by the United States Marine Corps, which even developed its “Small Wars Manual” in 1921 based on the experiences from those conflicts.
The United States Navy provided gunfire support in several engagements in Latin America, and the United States Army also deployed troops on the ground.
From August 1898 to August 1934, the U.S. was involved in interventions in Cuba, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. America’s small wars only came to an end when the last U.S. forces withdrew from Haiti in 1934. It didn’t mark the end of U.S. intervention in foreign lands, however.
Fighting the Spread of Communism
During the Cold War, the United States engaged in several notable operations to prevent the spread of communism. Neither the Korean War in the early 1951, nor the U.S. involvement in Vietnam from 1964 to 1973, was a formally declared war by the United States Congress.
The former was termed a “police action” to avoid the constraints of a formal declaration of war, but the latter involved a large-scale escalation authorized by Congress.
It should be noted that the first U.S. conflict against communist forces actually took place in Russia, when American troops fought alongside Allied forces in the Russian Civil War against the Red Army, primarily around Vladivostok and Archangel. Officially, President Woodrow Wilson stated the goal was to aid the Czechoslovak Legion, guard military supplies, and maintain order.
Decades later, the U.S. conducted numerous combat operations against the communists, notably the CIA-led “Secret War in Laos,” which coincided with the Vietnam War. Moreover, the U.S. military intervened in Lebanon, Cuba, and Santo Domingo in the early stages of the Cold War.
Although the U.S. didn’t send troops or even advisors, it did provide materiel aid to the Afghan mujahedin to fight the Soviet Army in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
The Middle East and the Global War on Terror
Following the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has continued to become embroiled in conflicts in distant lands, primarily the Middle East. Operation Epic Fury is essentially just one part of a U.S.-Iran conflict that began following the Islamic Revolution in 1979 in the Middle Eastern nation.
The 1991 Gulf War was also not officially declared.
Rather, Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against Iraq on January 12, 1991, allowing President George H.W. Bush to launch Operation Desert Storm. U.S. Armed Forces, acting under UN Security Council Resolution 678, took part in the liberation of Kuwait.
A decade later, Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), the invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks on the United States, was initiated following a Joint Resolution known as the 2001 AUMF to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against those responsible.
Operation Iraqi Freedom, launched a year and a half later, was also authorized by Congress with the passage of the AUMF against Iraq Resolution of 2002. It allowed President George W. Bush to use force to defend national security against the Iraqi threat.
In the years since, presidents have ordered military air and missile strikes, such as in 2011 in Libya during the Obama administration and during the Biden administration in Syria against Iran-backed militias. Last year, President Donald Trump ordered air strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
The debate remains whether presidents have the authority to order military attacks without Congressional approval, citing prior AUMF statutes and the War Powers Resolution, which allows the POTUS to deploy armed forces for 60 to 90 days without prior approval.
Critics have argued that it gives the president too much power to start new conflicts. The counterpoint is that the speed of modern technology, such as missiles and drone strikes, makes seeking immediate congressional authorization difficult.
