In the 242-year existence of the U.S. (1776–2018), the nation has been involved in 79 wars. If we define a “war year” as one during which the U.S. was involved in war part or all of the year, and if we define a “peace year” as one during which the U.S. was not involved in war, then the record shows there were 224 war years (92.5 percent) and only 18 peace years (7.5 percent).