Of the 45 men elected president of the United States, 31 have had prior military service, while only 14 have had no prior military service. History Despite being commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces, prior military service is not a prerequisite for presidents of the United States. Civil War-veteran presidents After the American Civil War, whether a politician had fought greatly influenced the public's perception of his appropriateness for the presidency. After a spate of such veteran-presidents, that influence diminished before being eliminated. World War II-veteran presidents So great was the influence of World War II on US politics, Dwight D. Eisenhower won the 1952 presidential election without any political experience. This halo effect of the second world war benefited the successful political campaigns of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter. After the 1988 United States presidential election however, the shine had dulled on military-veteran politicians, and through 2012, "the candidate with the better military record lost." , George H. W. Bush was the last president to have served in combat (as an aircraft carrier-based bomber pilot in WWII). Vietnam-veteran presidents The 48-year tenure of veteran presidents after World War II was a result of that conflict's "pervasive effect […] on American society." In the late 1970s and 1980s, almost 60% of the United States Congress had served in World War II or the Korean War, and it was expected that a Vietnam veteran would eventually ascend to the presidency. Yet, in the chronology of "major conflicts" involving the United States, the Vietnam War is the first to not produce a veteran president, an event that veteran and author Matt Gallagher called "no small feat for a country spawned in armed revolution." By 2017, a "bamboo ceiling" was described as holding down and preventing those who served in Vietnam from becoming president. Barack Obama's 2006 book The Audacity of Hope argued that baby boomers never left behind the anti-military psychodrama of the 1960s, and that played out in national politics. During Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, James Carville succeeded in releasing Clinton's 1969 letter that "outlined his opposition to the [Vietnam] war and his decision to try his chances with the draft." The positive effects of this release evidenced the diminished cachet of military service in presidential politics. Donald Trump's 2016 campaign further cemented this; Trump was elected that November despite bragging