Page "President of the United States" Paragraph 15

Perhaps the most important of all presidential powers is command of the United States Armed Forces as commander-in-chief.

While the power to declare war is constitutionally vested in Congress, the president commands and directs the military and is responsible for planning military strategy.

The framers of the Constitution took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military ; Alexander Hamilton explains this in Federalist No. 69: Congress, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, must authorize any troop deployments longer than 60 days, although that process relies on triggering mechanisms that have never been employed, rendering it ineffectual.

Additionally, Congress provides a check to presidential military power through its control over military spending and regulation.

While historically presidents initiated the process for going to war, critics have charged that there have been several conflicts in which presidents did not get official declarations, including Theodore Roosevelt's military move into Panama in 1903, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the invasions of Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1990.