Yesterday, we looked at the costs of various one time events versus the bailouts. It took one year of bailouts to rack up the debt totals of 206 years of war, westward expansion, space exploration, etc.
The chart we created omitted numerous conflicts (WWs, the Civil War, etc.) and I was curious as to actual costs of them, adjusted for Inflation.
Reader Ernst Mayer turned me on to this analysis by Stephen Daggett, a specialist in Defense Policy and Budgets. Daggett’s table (shown below) gives you our war spending details, but — spoiler alert — no other military engagement remotely compares to the financial costs of WWII. Total inflation adjusted spending: over 4.1 trillion dollars. That was about 36% of GDP.
Incredible.
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| Years of War Spending | Peak Year of War Spending | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Military Cost of War in Millions/Billions of Dollars | War Cost % GDP in Peak Year of War | ||
| American Revolution
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1775-1783
101 million 1,825 million |
||
| NA | |||
| War of 1812
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1812-1815
90 million 1,177 million |
1813 | |
| 2.2% | |||
| Mexican War
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1846-1849
71 million 1,801 million |
1847 | |
| 1.4% | |||
| Civil War: Union
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1861-1865
3,183 million 45,199 million |
1865 | |
| 11.3% | |||
| Civil War: Confederacy
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1861-1865
1,000 million 15,244 million |
||
| NA | |||
| Spanish American War
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1898-1899
283 million 6,848 million |
1899 | |
| 1.1% | |||
| World War I
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1917-1921
20 billion 253 billion |
1919 | |
| 13.6% | |||
| World War II
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1941-1945
296 billion 4,114 billion |
1945 | |
| 35.8% | |||
| Korea
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1950-1953
30 billion 320 billion |
1952 | |
| 4.2% | |||
| Vietnam
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1965-1975
111 billion 686 billion |
1968 | |
| 2.3% | |||
| Persian Gulf War /a/
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
1990-1991
61 billion 96 billion |
1991 | |
| 0.3% | |||
| Iraq /b/
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
2003-Present
616 billion 648 billion |
2008 | |
| 1.0% | |||
| Afghanistan/GWOT /b,c/
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
2001-Present
159 billion 171 billion |
2007 | |
| 0.3% | |||
| Post-9/11 Domestic Security (Operation Noble Eagle) /b/
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
2001-Present
28 billion 33 billion |
2003 | |
| 0.1% | |||
| Total Post-9/11–Iraq, Afghanistan/GWOT, ONE /d/
Current Year $ Constant FY2008$ |
2001-Present
809 billion 859 billion |
2008 | |
| 1.2% | |||
>
Source:
Costs of Major U.S. Wars
Stephen Daggett, Specialist in Defense Policy and Budgets
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Congressional Research Service Report for Congress (RS22926)
24 July 2008
http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/costs_of_major_us_wars.htm
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