Defense, Department of
Defense, Department of.Created in 1949, the Department of Defense was an outgrowth of the National Security Act of 1947, which had “unified” the armed services. The debate in Congress leading up to the 1947 legislation had its origins in the experiences of World War II, which, despite the overall success, had revealed numerous problems in command and control and the allocation of resources. Aiming to avoid similar situations in the future, President Harry S. Truman recommended a War Department plan calling for a highly centralized and closely unified structure, including a separate air force, under a single secretary of defense. The navy worried that such a setup would threaten the future of naval aviation and the independence of the Marine Corps, and urged that instead of unification, attention be given to improving high‐level policy coordination, with Britain's Committee of Imperial...
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