America’s War History: How Many Years Has the U.S. Been at War?

How Many Years Has the U.S. Been at War?

The U.S. Has Only Been At Peace For 17 Years Total Since Its Birth.

I have reproduced a year-by-year timeline of America’s wars, which reveals something quite interesting: since the United States was founded in 1776, she has been at war during 229 out of her 246 calendar years of existence as of 2022.

In other words, there were only 17 calendar years in which the U.S. did not wage any wars.

Let’s put this in perspective

• Pick any year since 1776 and there is about a 93% chance that America was involved in some war during that calendar year.
• No U.S. president truly qualifies as a peacetime president.  Instead, all U.S. presidents can technically be considered “war presidents.”
• The U.S. has never gone a decade without war.
• The only time the U.S. went five years without war (1935-40) was during the isolationist period of the Great Depression.

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