Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
National Security Act of 1947; Long title: An Act to promote the national security by providing for a Secretary of Defense; for a National Military Establishment; for a Department of the Army, a Department of the Navy, a Department of the Air Force; and for the coordination of the activities of the National Military Establishment with other departments and agencies of the Government concerned ...
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, [2] USDOD, or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government of the United States charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the U.S. government directly related to national security and the United States Armed Forces.
U.S. National Security organization has remained essentially stable since July 26, 1947, when U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947. Together with its 1949 amendment, this act: Created the National Military Establishment (NME) which became known as the Department of Defense when the act was amended in 1949.
The War Department existed from August 7, 1789 until September 18, 1947, [1] when it split into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. The Department of the Army and Department of the Air Force later joined the Department of the Navy under the United States Department of Defense in 1949.
The National Security Act of 1947 merged the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment (which was later renamed as the Department of Defense). The law also separated the U.S. Air Force from the Army. It created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Security Council (NSC).
In 1947, after the end of the war, President Harry S. Truman appointed him the first secretary of the newly created Department of Defense. Forrestal was intensely hostile to the Soviet Union, fearing Communist expansion in Europe and the Middle East.
The National Security Act of 1947 created the National Security Council under the chairmanship of the President, with the Secretaries of State and Defense as its key members, to coordinate foreign policy and defense policy, and to reconcile diplomatic and military commitments and requirements.
The Department of Defense: Documents on Establishment and Organization 1944–1978 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense/U.S. Government Printing Office. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2014. Department of Defense Key Officials September 1947 – February 2019 (PDF).