This week's vice presidential debate included a claim by Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, that no major international conflicts broke out during former president Donald Trump's time in office.
"When was the last time that an American president didn't have a major conflict, breakout? The only answer is during the four years that Donald Trump was president," Vance said.
The Trump-Vance campaign did not answer a question from Scripps News about what Vance meant by "major conflict."
It is true no major wars like those now involving Ukraine and Russia or Israel and Gaza started during Trump's time in office, but those years were hardly free of major international conflicts.
In April 2017, Trump authorized the dropping of 59 cruise missiles against Syria in the first U.S. military action in that country's civil war, a response to Syria's unlawful use of chemical weapons.
In North Korea, tensions escalated into a crisis as dictator Kim Jong Un ramped up weapons testing, threatening to use nuclear warheads against the U.S.
Later that conflict eased and Trump became friendly with Kim.
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In the Middle East, Trump ordered the killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, leading Iran to launch missiles against U.S. forces in Iraq. The retaliatory strikes left dozens of U.S. service members with traumatic brain injuries that Trump recently downplayed as "headaches."
Vance's s claim that Trump "didn't have a major conflict breakout" is mixed.
Several global conflicts occurred during the Trump administration, though none turned into a new war on the scale of the current conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
And the record of no-new-wars isn't unique to Trump, as Vance said.
It also applies to former president Jimmy Carter, who had no major wars start on his watch.
