
By Christopher Peleo-Lazar May 24, 2012 | 9:35 a.m. This year's presidential election between President Obama and Mitt Romney will be the first time since 1944, when President Roosevelt defeated Republican Thomas Dewey for a fourth term, that neither major-party candidate on the ballot served in the military. That's quite the anomaly, when looking at the scope of presidential history. Out of the 43 American presidents, only 12 didn't serve - though a few are up for debate (like Thomas Jefferson, who played an administrative role during the Revolutionary War). But with the number of Americans who served in the military on the decline, what was once a prerequisite for many voters has become an afterthought. Most of the first eight presidents either served in ...
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