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The Ludlow Amendment was a amendment to the constitution that required a national referendum in order to go to war unless the US was attacked first.

The text says

SEC. 1. Except in the event of an invasion of the United States or its Territorial possessions and attack upon its citizens residing therein, the authority of Congress to declare war shall not become effective until confirmed by a majority of all votes cast thereon in a nationwide referendum. Congress, when it deems a national crisis to exist, may by concurrent resolution refer the question of war or peace to the citizens of the States, the question to be voted on being, Shall the United States declare war on ________? Congress may otherwise by law provide for the enforcement of this section.

SEC. 2. Whenever war is declared the President shall immediately conscript and take for use by the Government all the public and private war properties, yards, factories, and supplies, together with employees necessary for their operation, fixing the compensation for private properties temporarily employed for the war period at a rate not in excess of 4 percent based on tax values assessed in the year preceding the war.


The US would not need a referendum to go to war with Japan they attacked them. I am not sure on Germany since the the amendment does not clarify what happens when a nation declares war. This would either go to the supreme court where declaring war is voted as being essentially being attacked or the amendment adds that in and so the real text is slightly different to above. If it was the first then this may cause other supreme court later which effect the nature of war. Anyway the amendment would not change WW2 [except if WW2 was moved back a few years it may make the amendment more likely to pass for example Britain and France not declaring war on Germany after the invasion of Poland]. The Korean War was popular and so no change there. Involvement in Vietnam in the fifties was popular. However as the war escalates this may raise another issue about the amendment. What happens when a war get unpopular. This may result in the answer that if a war gets unpopular the war should be stopped. And so after a referendum the US leaves Vietnam in the early sixties leaving a earlier win for North Vietnam. The invasion of Grenada is also voted against and so the invasion of Panama is proposed and neither is the Gulf War and the Kosovo War. The Afghanistan war and Iraq may initially be allowed yet after some years a referendum may force the US to withdraw. The war on terror may be more of a case of keeping terrorists out rather than fighting wars to destroying it in the first place. What would the result be then? What do you think would happen if the amendment was a success?
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