For a young country, America has an unfortunate history of wars. The Revolutionary War (1777 to 1783) made the U.S. an independent country. The War of 1812 (1812 to 1815) was a second conflict with the British. The Civil War (1862 to 1865) was the only major war fought within the nation’s boundaries. WWI (1914-1918) and WWII (1939 to 1945) were the wars in which the U.S. have its largest roles outside its borders. And, there have been several non-war wars like Vietnam (U.S. participation from 1964 to 1973) in which the U.S. never made an official war declaration.
Most of the wars in which America has been engaged involved the deaths of both military personnel and civilians from other countries. This was particularly true of WWI and WWII in which millions of people from other nations perished. The sole exception to the is the American Civil War, in which almost everyone who died was an American.
24/7 Wall St. researched U.S. wars to find the one in which the most Americans died. Seven of the 13 wars were considered to be fought in the 20th and 21st centuries. At the start of the 20th century, and fresh off its victory over Spain in the Spanish-American War, the United States began to project power around the world. In an expression of emerging American might, President Theodore Roosevelt sent the so-called “The “Great White Fleet” – 16 new battleships – around the world, from December 1907 to February 1909.
After each conflict, the United States grew ever larger as a world power, and accompanying that expansion was a perception of additional responsibilities and obligations to be borne. That has led to long and costly land wars in Asia (including the Middle East) in recent decades, despite warnings by military and political leaders against fighting land wars on that continent.
The war in which the most Americans died was World War II. Here are the details:
> Battle deaths: 291,557
> Non-mortal wounds: 670,846
> Total service members: 16,112,566
> Duration: 1941-1945
World War II was the greatest of all of history’s conflicts and more Americans died during the war than in any other. Isolationism was a powerful sentiment in the United States, even as Japan was running roughshod over China in the 1930s and German leader Adolf Hitler was demanding territory from its neighbors. But America’s close ties with Great Britain put the United States on a course of conflict with Germany, which had been sinking U.S. cargo ships bound for England. The U.S. was also on a war track with Japan after America imposed an oil embargo on that country over its conquests in the Pacific, and of course the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor made it imperative for the U.S. to confront that nation militarily. In 1940, the United States had fewer than 459,000 people in military service. By the time the Arsenal of Democracy had kicked into full gear in 1945, there were more than 12 million Americans in uniform.
Click here to read Wars In Which The Most Americans Died
Buffett Missed These Two…
Warren Buffett loves dividend stocks, and has stuffed Berkshire with some of his favorites.
But he overlooked two dividend legends that continue to print checks on a new level, they’re nowhere in his portfolio.
Unlock the two dividend legends Buffett missed in this new free report.
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.
Editors' Picks
