United States v. Robertson

Our Nation has engaged in four major wars since the turn of the Century — World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution gives to Congress “the power to declare War,” but only World War I and World War II were wars declared by Congress. Neither the Korean War nor the Vietnam War was, in the constitutional sense, a declared war. Both these wars were limited or imperfect wars. Cf. Bas[s] v. Tingy, 4 Dallas 37, 40, 1 L.Ed. 731 (1800).

Both World War I and World War II, as the names indicate, were of broad scope and hostilities in neither…