Party Control and America's Wars

About this chart

The top lane is the President's party. The next two are the Senate and the House, each split by seat share in every Congress, with the majority party on top in full color and the other parties faded. The bottom lane is America's major wars: each bar spans the war's years, and its area is in proportion to U.S. deaths. The readout gives the year, the President, the seats in each chamber and the war under way, if any. Point at any lane or war, or tap it, to read its numbers. The animation draws the years from 1789 to 2025 over forty-one seconds, holds on the full span for three seconds, and loops. The scrubber under the chart pauses on any year.

Method

The President, the Senate and the House follow piece 66, "Party Control of the White House, Senate and House": the party divisions at the start of each Congress from the U.S. Senate Historical Office and the Office of the Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives, the President who served the most days of each Congress, and the same lines of party descent and colors. Changes during a Congress are not shown. In the Senate and House lanes, each Congress is split by seat share, with the party that held more than half of the chamber's seats on top in full color; the other parties are shown faded, and other parties, independents and vacant seats in gray. Where no party held more than half, as in the tied Senates of 1881 and 2001, every party is shown faded. The dotted line marks half the seats.

The wars, their years and their U.S. deaths are the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' fact sheet “America's Wars” (November 2023). Deaths are battle deaths plus other deaths in service, as the VA lists them; the VA lists only battle deaths for the War of 1812. The Civil War counts Union and Confederate deaths; the VA notes that its Confederate figures come from incomplete returns and leave out the 26,000 to 31,000 who died in Union prisons. The VA gives no figure for the Global War on Terror (October 2001 – September 2021), so its deaths are not drawn and it is outlined only. The VA dates wars in whole years, so each bar runs from the start of its first year to the end of its last. A bar's area is in proportion to the war's U.S. deaths: its width is the war's years and its height the deaths per year. The American Revolution, before 1789, and the Indian Wars, which the VA estimates, are not shown. The chart sets the two records side by side; it does not attribute any war to a party.

Data sources

Data table

America's major wars from 1812 to 2021 as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs lists them, with their years, U.S. battle deaths, other deaths in service and the total the chart draws; the Civil War has a row each for Union and Confederate deaths. The party lanes use piece 66's table. Compiled by DataSlapper.

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Party Control and America's Wars, 1789–2025
War	Side	Years	Battle deaths	Other deaths in theater	Other deaths in service	Total deaths	Declared war
War of 1812		1812–1815	2,260	—	—	2,260	yes
Mexican War		1846–1848	1,733	11,550	—	13,283	yes
Civil War	Union	1861–1865	140,414	224,097	—	364,511	no
Civil War	Confederate	1861–1865	74,524	59,297	—	133,821	no
Spanish-American War		1898–1902	385	—	2,061	2,446	yes
World War I		1917–1918	53,402	—	63,114	116,516	yes
World War II		1941–1945	291,557	—	113,842	405,399	yes
Korean War		1950–1953	33,739	2,835	17,672	54,246	no
Vietnam War		1964–1975	47,434	10,786	32,000	90,220	no
Gulf War		1990–1991	148	235	1,565	1,948	no
War on Terror		2001–2021	—	—	—	—	no

Updated 2025

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