Will we have a President who served in Vietnam?

[politicus]

I would contend that we have not had a President who "served" in WWI.

Truman did.

[politicus]

I would contend that we have not had a President who "served" in WWI.

Eisenhower did state-side logistics and planning, Truman fought in 1917 and 1918.

No, July 1918 to the armistice.

Korea is a interesting case. Carter served in the Pacific as a naval officer, but never saw active combat afaik.

[politicus]

Webb would be the best shot at it but in all likeliness, no. The Vietnam vets are getting old and a lot of them were turned off by politics coming home for obvious reasons so the ones that did get elected are few in number and don't have the name recognition of a John Kerry or a Jim Webb, for example.

Maybe for similar reasons we never had a World War I vet president.

You did. See above.

[politicus]

Watching a report on Jim Webb, and it occurred to me that Vietnam is the only major war which we have not had a president who served in it. I don't think Webb has a major chance in 2016.

PS. I'm not really counting Bush 43. I don't think he was ever in Vietnam.

The Korean War isn't major enough for you?

Carter served on a submarine in the Pacific during the Korean War. It depends how closely you want the service to be related to the theatre of war.