Timeline of the most expensive wars in U.S. history

[Kailash Kumar]

Timeline of the Most Expensive Wars in U.S. History

17 October 2019

The U.S. is the biggest military power in the world, with an annual budget of $649B. The War in Afghanistan in total has cost the country over $910B. The conflict is now over 18 years old, making it by far the longest in American history. It’s so old, some soldiers preparing to fight in it were not even born when it started. Time Magazine calls it “America’s Forever War,” which got us thinking about how its price tag compares to other wars in American history.

• World War II is by far the most expensive in American history, totaling 4.69T, more than every other war combined.
• The War in Afghanistan is only the third most expensive, however it is by far the longest at 18 years and counting.
• The total cumulative cost of the Civil War for both the North and the South is surprisingly small.
• Warfare is getting more expensive over time thanks to pricier weapons and far-off conflict zones.

We plotted each war on a timeline from the American Revolution until today, illustrating how long each conflict lasted, where in the world it took place, and how much each one cost. You can read the details about how the Congressional Research Service calculated the costs of war in the full report. Our figures from USA Today are adjusted for inflation in 2019 to represent a true apples-to-apples comparison. The visualization reveals several key trends and takeaways about the true cost of warfare. Warfare has cost the American people over $8.6T, to say nothing of the lives lost. That’s the equivalent of over one-third of the entire U.S. national debt ($22.8T), or about twice the size of the GDP of Japan ($4.6T).

Top 10 Most Expensive Major Wars in U.S. History
1. World War II: $4.69T
2. Iraq War: $1.01T
3. War in Afghanistan: $910.47B
4. Vietnam War: $843.63B
5. Korean War: $398.81B
6. World War I: $381.8B
7. Persian Gulf War: $116.6B
8. Civil War: Union: $68.17B
9. Civil War: Confederacy: $22.99B
10. Spanish American War: $10.33B

War also tends to get more expensive over time, steadily rising from a few billion dollars to just shy of trillions by the twenty-first century. This is thanks in large part to the cost of complex weapons systems, like the F-35 Lightning fighter jet, which has a lifetime cost to the U.S. military of $1T. We should also mention how the location of combat determines how much it costs. In the first several decades of American history, wars typically occurred close to American borders, usually somewhere in North America. But then the U.S. became engaged in global conflicts and in theaters of combat literally around the world, like Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars create complicated supply lines, further driving up the cost.

All that being said, nothing compares to the truly staggering cost of World War II at $4.69T. No other war even comes close to costing as much, and in fact the cumulative total of every other war in American history is just $3.77T. Although the War in Afghanistan is the longest in history, it has a long way to go before it will be as expensive as World War II.

https://howmuch.net/articles/most-expensive-wars-us-history

 

[vi-va]

Timeline of the Most Expensive Wars in U.S. History

17 October 2019

The U.S. is the biggest military power in the world, with an annual budget of $649B. The War in Afghanistan in total has cost the country over $910B. The conflict is now over 18 years old, making it by far the longest in American history. It’s so old, some soldiers preparing to fight in it were not even born when it started. Time Magazine calls it “America’s Forever War,” which got us thinking about how its price tag compares to other wars in American history.

• World War II is by far the most expensive in American history, totaling 4.69T, more than every other war combined.
• The War in Afghanistan is only the third most expensive, however it is by far the longest at 18 years and counting.
• The total cumulative cost of the Civil War for both the North and the South is surprisingly small.
• Warfare is getting more expensive over time thanks to pricier weapons and far-off conflict zones.

We plotted each war on a timeline from the American Revolution until today, illustrating how long each conflict lasted, where in the world it took place, and how much each one cost. You can read the details about how the Congressional Research Service calculated the costs of war in the full report. Our figures from USA Today are adjusted for inflation in 2019 to represent a true apples-to-apples comparison. The visualization reveals several key trends and takeaways about the true cost of warfare. Warfare has cost the American people over $8.6T, to say nothing of the lives lost. That’s the equivalent of over one-third of the entire U.S. national debt ($22.8T), or about twice the size of the GDP of Japan ($4.6T).

Top 10 Most Expensive Major Wars in U.S. History
1. World War II: $4.69T
2. Iraq War: $1.01T
3. War in Afghanistan: $910.47B
4. Vietnam War: $843.63B
5. Korean War: $398.81B
6. World War I: $381.8B
7. Persian Gulf War: $116.6B
8. Civil War: Union: $68.17B
9. Civil War: Confederacy: $22.99B
10. Spanish American War: $10.33B

War also tends to get more expensive over time, steadily rising from a few billion dollars to just shy of trillions by the twenty-first century. This is thanks in large part to the cost of complex weapons systems, like the F-35 Lightning fighter jet, which has a lifetime cost to the U.S. military of $1T. We should also mention how the location of combat determines how much it costs. In the first several decades of American history, wars typically occurred close to American borders, usually somewhere in North America. But then the U.S. became engaged in global conflicts and in theaters of combat literally around the world, like Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars create complicated supply lines, further driving up the cost.

All that being said, nothing compares to the truly staggering cost of World War II at $4.69T. No other war even comes close to costing as much, and in fact the cumulative total of every other war in American history is just $3.77T. Although the War in Afghanistan is the longest in history, it has a long way to go before it will be as expensive as World War II.

https://howmuch.net/articles/most-expensive-wars-us-history

The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict

 

[graphican]

War in Afghanistan must have cost over a trillion already. Imran Khan mentioned it as 1.5 Trillion in his conversation with American TV.

 

[YeBeWarned]

Afghan War would have ended with OBL's alleged death, America has no business in Afghanistan despite hoping that Afghan Army will one day be able to take responsibilities which will never happen, It is sad to see America tax payers money go wasted and American lives been lost for a war that has no end in sight, Hopefully Trump unlike Obama Drama will eventually pull all his troops back to America and put an end for America to be acting as World police .

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

American civil war is by far the most expensive, if inflation is taken into account.

 

[LeGenD]

The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict

This is a subjective assessment including the costs involved in taking care of the thousands of injured veterans, providing them with disability benefits and health care.

Cost of war = operations + logistics + maintenance + investments

 

[Flash_Ninja]

Im watching the Vietnam war documentary on netflix, and it blows my mind how much money the Americans were throwing at the situation.

One single operation to dislodge viet cong from a single mountain top, had the US commander call up every single aircraft in South Vietnam, including high altitude B-52's and combat f-15's who couldnt see a target and ended up just flying in circles for much of the operation.

They also managed to drop three million tons worth of bombs in the jungles of Laos alone, just trying to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh trail, which they failed to destroy anyway.

 

[Pakhtoon yum]

Timeline of the Most Expensive Wars in U.S. History

17 October 2019

The U.S. is the biggest military power in the world, with an annual budget of $649B. The War in Afghanistan in total has cost the country over $910B. The conflict is now over 18 years old, making it by far the longest in American history. It’s so old, some soldiers preparing to fight in it were not even born when it started. Time Magazine calls it “America’s Forever War,” which got us thinking about how its price tag compares to other wars in American history.

• World War II is by far the most expensive in American history, totaling 4.69T, more than every other war combined.
• The War in Afghanistan is only the third most expensive, however it is by far the longest at 18 years and counting.
• The total cumulative cost of the Civil War for both the North and the South is surprisingly small.
• Warfare is getting more expensive over time thanks to pricier weapons and far-off conflict zones.

We plotted each war on a timeline from the American Revolution until today, illustrating how long each conflict lasted, where in the world it took place, and how much each one cost. You can read the details about how the Congressional Research Service calculated the costs of war in the full report. Our figures from USA Today are adjusted for inflation in 2019 to represent a true apples-to-apples comparison. The visualization reveals several key trends and takeaways about the true cost of warfare. Warfare has cost the American people over $8.6T, to say nothing of the lives lost. That’s the equivalent of over one-third of the entire U.S. national debt ($22.8T), or about twice the size of the GDP of Japan ($4.6T).

Top 10 Most Expensive Major Wars in U.S. History
1. World War II: $4.69T
2. Iraq War: $1.01T
3. War in Afghanistan: $910.47B
4. Vietnam War: $843.63B
5. Korean War: $398.81B
6. World War I: $381.8B
7. Persian Gulf War: $116.6B
8. Civil War: Union: $68.17B
9. Civil War: Confederacy: $22.99B
10. Spanish American War: $10.33B

War also tends to get more expensive over time, steadily rising from a few billion dollars to just shy of trillions by the twenty-first century. This is thanks in large part to the cost of complex weapons systems, like the F-35 Lightning fighter jet, which has a lifetime cost to the U.S. military of $1T. We should also mention how the location of combat determines how much it costs. In the first several decades of American history, wars typically occurred close to American borders, usually somewhere in North America. But then the U.S. became engaged in global conflicts and in theaters of combat literally around the world, like Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars create complicated supply lines, further driving up the cost.

All that being said, nothing compares to the truly staggering cost of World War II at $4.69T. No other war even comes close to costing as much, and in fact the cumulative total of every other war in American history is just $3.77T. Although the War in Afghanistan is the longest in history, it has a long way to go before it will be as expensive as World War II.

https://howmuch.net/articles/most-expensive-wars-us-history

And the anericans on PDF were saying how cheap the Afghan war is. They boosted on how it cantc be compared to the Vietnam war because it's so cheap.

 

[vi-va]

This is a subjective assessment including the costs involved in taking care of the thousands of injured veterans, providing them with disability benefits and health care.

Cost of war = operations + logistics + maintenance + investments

It's the real cost of war, you have to take injured veterans into account. No matter what it's on the national balance sheet.

 

[WarKa DaNG]

And how much oil, gold and drugs did they get

 

[Havard]

World War II - which cost over 4 TRILLION dollars, to discover just what the U.S. spent all that cash on! Back when Hitler was raging throughout Europe and Japan was attacking Pearl Harbor, the U.S. decided it needed to help the Allies stop the Axis Powers from taking over.

Timeline of the Most Expensive Wars in U.S. History

17 October 2019

The U.S. is the biggest military power in the world, with an annual budget of $649B. The War in Afghanistan in total has cost the country over $910B. The conflict is now over 18 years old, making it by far the longest in American history. It’s so old, some soldiers preparing to fight in it were not even born when it started. Time Magazine calls it “America’s Forever War,” which got us thinking about how its price tag compares to other wars in American history.

• World War II is by far the most expensive in American history, totaling 4.69T, more than every other war combined.
• The War in Afghanistan is only the third most expensive, however it is by far the longest at 18 years and counting.
• The total cumulative cost of the Civil War for both the North and the South is surprisingly small.
• Warfare is getting more expensive over time thanks to pricier weapons and far-off conflict zones.

We plotted each war on a timeline from the American Revolution until today, illustrating how long each conflict lasted, where in the world it took place, and how much each one cost. You can read the details about how the Congressional Research Service calculated the costs of war in the full report. Our figures from USA Today are adjusted for inflation in 2019 to represent a true apples-to-apples comparison. The visualization reveals several key trends and takeaways about the true cost of warfare. Warfare has cost the American people over $8.6T, to say nothing of the lives lost. That’s the equivalent of over one-third of the entire U.S. national debt ($22.8T), or about twice the size of the GDP of Japan ($4.6T).

Top 10 Most Expensive Major Wars in U.S. History
1. World War II: $4.69T
2. Iraq War: $1.01T
3. War in Afghanistan: $910.47B
4. Vietnam War: $843.63B
5. Korean War: $398.81B
6. World War I: $381.8B
7. Persian Gulf War: $116.6B
8. Civil War: Union: $68.17B
9. Civil War: Confederacy: $22.99B
10. Spanish American War: $10.33B

War also tends to get more expensive over time, steadily rising from a few billion dollars to just shy of trillions by the twenty-first century. This is thanks in large part to the cost of complex weapons systems, like the F-35 Lightning fighter jet, which has a lifetime cost to the U.S. military of $1T. We should also mention how the location of combat determines how much it costs. In the first several decades of American history, wars typically occurred close to American borders, usually somewhere in North America. But then the U.S. became engaged in global conflicts and in theaters of combat literally around the world, like Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars create complicated supply lines, further driving up the cost.

All that being said, nothing compares to the truly staggering cost of World War II at $4.69T. No other war even comes close to costing as much, and in fact the cumulative total of every other war in American history is just $3.77T. Although the War in Afghanistan is the longest in history, it has a long way to go before it will be as expensive as World War II.

https://howmuch.net/articles/most-expensive-wars-us-history

World War II - which cost over 4 TRILLION dollars, to discover just what the U.S. spent all that cash on! Back when Hitler was raging throughout Europe and Japan was attacking Pearl Harbor, the U.S. decided it needed to help the Allies stop the Axis Powers from taking over.

 

[TigerOfMysore]

World War II - which cost over 4 TRILLION dollars, to discover just what the U.S. spent all that cash on! Back when Hitler was raging throughout Europe and Japan was attacking Pearl Harbor, the U.S. decided it needed to help the Allies stop the Axis Powers from taking over.


World War II - which cost over 4 TRILLION dollars, to discover just what the U.S. spent all that cash on! Back when Hitler was raging throughout Europe and Japan was attacking Pearl Harbor, the U.S. decided it needed to help the Allies stop the Axis Powers from taking over.

With the WWII US received a tremendous amount of post war dividend, that paid back that 4T investment in buckets. All colonial powers were ground down, and US became the ascendent power. The more recent wars especially the last Afghan war has done just the opposite. It has sped up the demise of the US dollar, and hence in my view the last Afghan war was materially a more costly affair than anything prior.