MILNET: The President of the United States

The President of the United States

As the Commander in Chief (CINC), the President commands all the armed forces of the United States. To facilitate command and control of this awesome responsibility, the President is constantly followed around by a senior officer carrying a mobile communications setup and the sets of codes that allow the President to swing the U.S. nuclear machine into operation.

War Powers Act

But this power cannot be used at the President's whim. Certain conditions must exist before the President's orders will be followed, for instance the U.S. must be under imminent threat of nuclear attack before nuclear forces will accept his codes to launch nuclear weapons. A pre-emptive strike out of the "clear blue" cannot happen. On the other hand, the President may issue orders to that effect if the Armed Forces have moved to a readiness "footing" which signifies war is emminent (DEFCON 3 or Defense Condtion Three, with DEFCON 4 meaning to actually be at war.)

The Presidents power to take the nation to war, of course, also extends outside the nuclear warfare role, but Congress, over the years since the Vietnam War, has severely limited the President's war power in the conventional sense.

Defense Budget

As the commander-in-chief, the President is responsible, through the Defense Department, for proposing the budget changes to provide for the defense of the United States. It is his policies, then that are articulated to Congress. Congress in turn makes the final decisions, modifing the budget (including the Defense Budget, a segment of the overall national budget) with the President able to veto the budget package. Congress then has the opportunity to override the President's veto.

Military Operations

The President, as the commander-in-chief, may authorize the use of force to enforce his foreign policy. For instance, a classic example is the use of force to expel Manuel Noriega from Panama, Operation Just Cause. However, as discussed earlier, Congress can limit or prohibit military action if it deems it necessary. However, the initial thrust of military action is on the President's authority, and until certain time limits are exceeded, troops are in place per the President's orders. Of course, the nuclear machinery was at the President's descretion during the "Cold War", with a nuclear launch being at the command of the President at any moment. This was necessary due to the small amount of time available between launch detection from the Soviet Union, and the time missiles would fall on targets in the U.S. or U.S. allies in N.A.T.O.

Other policies related to military action are made possible by Presidential Directives or Executive Orders , covering both overt and covert actions. For instance, the President may prohibit import and export countries aiding and abetting terrorism, or act similarly against countries actively destabilizing peace accords critical to U.S. foreign policy or national security.

Today military operations begin planning on the word of the President, given to the Secretary of Defense. SecDef orders the Pentagon to prepare warfighting or smaller operational plans in preparation to the President's decision to go with the military option. Usually there is plenty of notice, as diplomatic efforts are visibly failing. Thus unlike the State Department, the Defense Department has some notice before being required to offer a plan. Unfortunately, the warfighting or smaller operation may take longer than is available. However, recent operations have been planned with an executive level keenly aware of the mistakes of hurried military operations (both from the war in Vietnam in the mid 1960s, to the botched rescue attempt of hostages in Iran during President Jimmy Carter's administration).

Pentagon planning is presented to the President, on occassion with various options for the President and his cabinet to mull over. As these are refined, in a back and forth operation between the White House and the Pentagon, the U.S. President eventually gives a "go" or "no-go" to the plan. Once execution is authorized, the operation's Action Officer begins to prepare the forces necessary to implement the operation. In the small operations case, this might be a series of secret rehearsals, in the larger operation, the movement of large number of troops and perhaps callup of certain key individuals from the reserves or other sources. The action officer usually delivers the execution orders to each of the implementing service operations, whether it be a theatre commander or a task force operator such as the Admiral in charge of a Carrier Battle Group.

All this activity is conducted at that point under the auspices and authority of the President, and is usually classified under special, named security classifications such as "top secret orange" or some other innocous name. Only those cleared with this special clearance have the need to know. The Action Officer determines who needs to know and informs operations elements as the operation timetable requires.

Once the operation planning and preparation are complete, there is still time for the President to cancel the operation. And in many cases this is the case, the President looking both at the risk of the operation and the world political climate, and making the decision that it is not appropriate to conduct the operation, thus the troops stand down. However, in some cases once an operation stands down, it may be called up again and under a shorter timetable set in motion again. While this is not practicle in terms of morale, efficiency, or expense, it is within the pervue of the President to conduct the operation in this manner. Indeed this also has happened in the U.S. military history, and with surprisingly good results in a few cases. However the norm is to shelf a stand down for long periods of time, and for it eventually to never come to fruition.

Large warfighting operations have just as many opportunities to begin, plan, prepare, and cancel. However, the time periods are typically longer, and of course, movements of large military assets are quite visible, making the operation less able to be performed under secrecy. U.S. press has been fairly able to keep their mouths closed, however, international news organizations tend to sniff out U.S. troop movements and certainly seem to know where U.S. Navy Carrier Battle Groups are at any time. This makes it near to impossible to sneak attack with those kinds of forces.

Thus the President can make smaller operations occur with some level of surprise, however, larger operations are only a surprise in the few moments only just prior to their execution...the opponent only being unaware of the exact moment of attack, but knowing it is imminent.


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