Congress and the World Wars

World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945) were cataclysmic events, which spurred Congress to address the nation’s role in the world. As foreign aggression increasingly threatened national security, Congress refined its isolationist stance by declaring war on its enemies. To prepare the country for these wars, Congress debated and passed legislation to recruit citizens to serve their country, expand the U.S. citizenry and their rights, regulate the domestic economy, and define national loyalty. These laws forever changed the nation and the everyday lives of all Americans.

Debating the Wars

Every Liberty Bond is a Shot at a U Boat, . . . Buy a Liberty Bond, poster, ca. 1917

H.R. 5990, An Act to further the national defense and security by checking . . . inflationary tendencies (Emergency Price Control Act), January 27, 1942

Funding the Wars

Every Liberty Bond is a Shot at a U Boat, . . . Buy a Liberty Bond, poster, ca. 1917

H.R. 5990, An Act to further the national defense and security by checking . . . inflationary tendencies (Emergency Price Control Act), January 27, 1942

Fighting the Wars

H.R. 9533, An Act to provide a civil government for Porto Rico (Jones-Shafroth Act), June 30, 1916

H.R. 3545, An Act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States (Selective Service Act), April 28, 1917

Letter from Chief Matt Semple to Mr. President of the House, July 14, 1919

Representative Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts Opening House Session, photograph by Harris & Ewing, September 27, 1929

S. 495, A Bill to establish a Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps for service in the Army of the United States, January 21, 1943

Telegram to the Chairman, G.I. Bill Committee, May 20, 1944

National Loyalty

“Victor Berger is Indicted Foe of America,” New York Tribune, March 10, 1918

“I Am an American” Sign Placed in Storefront on December 8, 1941, in Oakland, California, photograph by Dorothea Lange, March 1942

Wait till the Dies Committee Hears about This! drawing by Herbert Block, December 1938

School Children Pledging Their Allegiance to the Flag in Southington, Connecticut, photograph by Fenno Jacobs for the Farm Security Administration, May 1942

“May They Never Have to be Hidden or Kept in the Dark Again", drawing by Karl Kae Knecht, Evansville Courier, September 2, 1944

World War I: A World Transformed

When President Woodrow Wilson attended the post-war Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to negotiate a peace treaty, he chose not to include members of Congress in his delegation, even though the Senate would ultimately decide whether or not the United States would approve the treaty. Upon Wilson’s return, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles after a lengthy and contentious debate, symbolizing Congress’s uncertainty regarding the United States’ newfound status as a world power.

Treaty of Peace with Germany: Address of the President of the United States

Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Vote Tally on the Lodge Amendment (Treaty of Versailles), August 23, 1919

World War I: A Nation Transformed

After the war, Congress authorized new policy changes in the United States that affected how Americans honored those who died in the war, the treatment of war veterans, the rights of women, the citizenship of American Indians, and the federal budget process. Congress also extended a controversial wartime investigation into alleged subversion and instituted historic restrictions on immigration.

General Mark Hersey and Captain Hamilton Fish, photograph by George Grantham Bain, ca. 1917

Representative Hamilton Fish of New York, photograph, 1920

Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas, photograph, ca. 1932

H.R. 7959, An Act to provide adjusted compensation for veterans of the World War . . . (Bonus Act), April 10, 1924

As a War Measure, poster by National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company, Inc., ca. 1918

S. 1084, A Bill to provide a national budget system and an independent audit of Government accounts . . . (Budget and Accounting Act), April 25, 1921

American Indian Members of Company E, 142nd Infantry, 36th Division, photograph, n.d.

Senator Lee Slater Overman of North Carolina, photograph by B. M. Clinedinst, ca. 1904

World War II: A World Transformed

Congress enhanced that influence by creating multilateral institutions, providing foreign aid to war-torn nations, and debating how best to manage America’s potent atomic capabilities. Members of Congress were instrumental in establishing the United Nations and in seeking to contain communism through support for the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Members of the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations San Francisco Conference, photograph, April 25, 1945

S.1717, A Bill for the development and control of atomic energy (Atomic Energy Act), December 20, 1945

S. 938, A Bill to provide assistance to Greece and Turkey (Greek-Turkish Aid Act), March 18, 1947

Senator Tom Connally of Texas, photograph, n.d.

Representative Sol Bloom of New York, photograph by Harris & Ewing, n.d.

Syracuse Herald-Journal, Syracuse, New York, front page, February 26, 1948

World War II: A Nation Transformed

Congress passed legislation to enable veterans to buy homes and afford higher education; expand the right of women to serve in the military; restructure the national security establishment; and settle historic land claims by American Indians. Congress also dramatically expanded its investigation into potential communist subversion in the United States. To preserve the experiences of World War II veterans and help Americans better understand the realities of war, Congress passed the Veterans’ Oral History Project Act in 2000.

S. 1767, A Bill to provide Federal Government aid for the readjustment in civilian life of returning World War II veterans (G.I. Bill of Rights), March 13, 1944

Veterans’ Oral History Project Act, October 27, 2000

S. 758, An Act to promote the national security by providing for a National Security Organization . . . (National Security Act), July 15, 1947

For Your Country’s Sake Today—For Your Own Sake Tomorrow, poster, 1942–45

H.R. 4497, An Act to create an Indian Claims Commission . . . , May 21, 1946

Summons from the U.S. House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to Alger Hiss, August 17, 1948

Stay in the know

Want the most up-to-date information? Join our mailing list to stay in the know.

Sign Up Now