Expanding Presidential Power

• Author: Jack Fruchtman
• Profession: Professor of Political Science and Director of the Program in Law and American Civilization at Towson University, Maryland
• Pages: 186-198

American Constitutional History: A Brief Introduction, First Edition. Jack Fruchtman.

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

13

Expanding Presidential Power

Early in the welfare state republic, the power of the president grew as

a response to rapidly changing social and economic conditions and to

the rise of totalitarian governments in Europe and Asia threatening

Western democracies. The United States entered into several wars and

military conflicts, some declared, most not. These included World War

II, the Korean War, the War in Vietnam as well as several American

military interventions into the Middle East and Latin America. Most

presidencies from the 1930s to the 1990s experienced war and military

conflict. World War II began in Europe when German troops invaded

Poland on September 1, 1939. Britain and France declared war on

Germany after having guaranteed Polish independence. Although

sympathetic to the allied cause, the United States remained neutral.

With the fall of France in June 1940, the threat to American national

security intensified in light of relentless military advances by Nazi

Germany and its Italian fascist ally in Europe and an expanding imperial

Japan in the Far East in China and Korea.

In early 1941, the United States sent war materiel to its British ally

in a program authorized by the Lend‐Lease Act of 1941. The measure

empowered the president to sell, transfer, lend, or lease all materials

that he thought necessary to ensure the security and defense of the

United States. After Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June that

year, the United States extended lend‐lease to the Russians. In all,

President Franklin Roosevelt signed agreements with 15 nations in aid