You have read the strict interepetation of the constitution.
When you get into an era where cyber conflict is constant, where information war goes on all the time and is chosen specifically because it does not have to be declared, it suggests another area of the Constitution, the language of the law has not kept up with reality.
No American war since WWII has resulted from a declaration of war, but a court would likely rule that giving aide and comfort to North Korea during our “police action" constituted treason. But nobody gets charged with Treason any more. It's too hard to prove (it requires the testimony of two witnesses to the treasonous act, for instance) and there are plenty of other federal statutes that punish disloyalty and carry just as severe a penalty.
What you do not know is that people have been convicted of treason in America in a time when we were not at war.....thus you fall short.
In 1794 Philip Vigol and John Mitchell were convicted of treason for their part in the Whiskey Rebellion and sentenced to death. Both were pardoned by President George Washington. Six years later, John Fries, the leader of the eponymous rebellion, was convicted of the same offense; he also received a pardon, from John Adams. Aaron Burr was rather famously acquitted in 1807. In April of 1862, William Bruce Mumford was found guilty of treason after removing an American flag planted by Union Marines atop a mint in New Orleans. Mumford was hanged. During this period, the states also occasionally secured convictions for treason. John Brown was executed in 1859 for crimes against the Commonwealth of Virginia, not the United States. Joseph Smith was charged with treason by the governments of both Missouri and Illinois; he was killed by a mob in 1844.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were the last people in the U.S. involved in a treason-related trial to be convicted, sentenced to death
People convicted of treason in the United States
- Philip Vigol and John Mitchell, convicted of treason and sentenced to hanging; pardoned by George Washington; see Whiskey Rebellion.
- John Fries, the leader of Fries' Rebellion, convicted of treason in 1800 along with two accomplices, and pardoned that same year by John Adams.
- In a case famous at the time, Aaron Burr was acquitted of treason, and then burned in effigy, in 1807. He voluntarily exiled himself to the United Kingdom for 5 years.
- Governor Thomas Dorr 1844, convicted of treason against the state of Rhode Island; see Dorr Rebellion; released in 1845; civil rights restored in 1851; verdict annulled in 1854.
- The abolitionist John Brown, convicted in 1859 of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and fomenting a slave insurrection for his part in the Harpers Ferry raid; executed. The first person executed for treason in the country's history.
- Aaron Dwight Stevens, took part in John Brown's raid and was executed in 1860 for treason against Virginia.
- William Bruce Mumford, convicted of treason and hanged in 1862 for tearing down a United States flag during the American Civil War.
- David Herold, Lewis Powell, David Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt, convicted of treason and hanged for conspiring in the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.[13]
- Walter Allen was convicted of treason on September 16, 1922 for taking part in the 1921 Miner's March against the coal companies and the U.S. Army at Blair Mountain, West Virginia. He was sentenced to 10 years and fined. During his appeal to the Supreme Court he disappeared while out on bail. United Mineworkers of America leader William Blizzard was acquitted of the charge of treason by the jury on May 25, 1922.[14]
- Max Stephan, a German-born Detroit tavernkeeper, was convicted of treason on July 2, 1942, after the jury deliberated for only one hour and 23 minutes. In April 1942, Stephan harbored and fed at his tavern a Luftwaffe pilot who escaped from a Canadian POW camp.[15] On August 6, Judge Arthur J. Tuttle sentenced Stephan to death by hanging.[16] He was the first man convicted and sentenced to death on a federal treason charge since the Civil War. His sentence was later commuted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to life in prison.[17]
- Hans Max Haupt, Walter Otto Froehling and Otto Richard Wergin were convicted of treason and sentenced to death, and Erna Emma Haupt, Lucille Froehling and Kate Martha Wergin were convicted of treason and sentenced to 25 years in prison on November 24, 1942, in a joint indictment.[18] All six individuals were charged with treason for giving aid and comfort to the executed German saboteur Herbert Hans Haupt. On appeal, these judgments were reversed and remanded to be retried.[19] Hans Max Haupt was convicted again on June 9, 1944.[20] He was sentenced to life in prison. He appealed again, but the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed this judgement.[21] Walter Otto Froehling and Otto Richard Wergin were sentenced to 5 years in prison on July 22, 1944 as accessories to treason.[22] Hans Max Haupt eventually appealed the case up to the Supreme Court, which sustained the verdict against him.[23]
- Martin James Monti, United States Army Air Forces pilot, convicted of treason for defecting to the Waffen-SS in 1944. He was paroled in 1960.
- Max Otto Koischwitz, charged with treason for defecting to Nazi Germany during World War II in 1943, died of tuberculosis in 1944.
- Edward Leo Delaney, charged with treason for defecting to Nazi Germany during World War II in 1943, charges were dropped in 1947.
- Jane Anderson, American journalist indicted on charges of treason in 1943, defected to Nazi Germany in World War II, charges were dropped in 1947.
- Frederick Wilhelm Kaltenbach, indicted for defecting to Germany during World War II as a broadcaster in 1943, died in Soviet custody
- Douglas Chandler, worker for National Geographic, convicted of treason in 1947 for defecting to Germany during World War II, sentence commuted by president John F. Kennedy[13]
- Robert Henry Best, convicted of treason on April 16, 1948 and served a life sentence.
- Iva Toguri D'Aquino, who is frequently identified by the name "Tokyo Rose", convicted 1949. Subsequently, pardoned by President Gerald Ford.
- Mildred Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally", convicted of treason on March 8, 1949; served 12 years of a 10- to 30-year prison sentence.
- Herbert John Burgman, convicted of treason in 1949 during WWII for spreading Nazi propaganda; sentenced to 6–20 years in prison.
- Tomoya Kawakita, sentenced to death for treason in 1952, but eventually released by President John F. Kennedy to be deported to Japan.
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