Only five times in its history did America formally declare war through Congress. In 200 separate occasions (Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, included) military action was decided by the President alone. This is because in war matters the revered Constitution of 1789 assigned huge powers to the head of state- in fact, he is almost an absolute monarch.

David Kennedy, the historian, is right in singling out Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the foremost American warmonger since 1776. In fact, George W. Bush can be considered merely a disciple in comparison. Roosevelt coaxed reluctant America into entering World War II through a sequence of cajoleries and actual lies. In the end, he succeeded in provoking Japan to attack Pearl Harbor.

The New Deal President is routinely credited with liberating Western Europe. However, by averting the final collapse of the Soviet Union, FDR allowed Stalin to subjugate Eastern Europe. The present day anticommunist sentiment of many East Europeans proves beyond any doubt that Stalin’s rule was no better than Hitler’s.

The very day after FDR died, the successor he chose (Harry Truman) decided that the USSR was the enemy, not the ally that Roosevelt imagined.

And the Cold War followed soon after.