US Defense: Some Useful Historical Facts
The US Department of Defense (DoD) is a federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies directly involved with national security and military matters. The DoD is one of the largest tenants at The Pentagon and is made of three chief sub-departments, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Air Forceand the Department of the Navy.
Alternative DOD agencies include the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the infamous National Security Agency (NSA).
In terms of the department’s history, it was set up based on some specific plans constructed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and 19 December 1945, President Harry S. Truman proposed the creation of a brand new unified Department of National Defense. The idea was debated over and was not passed until 1947.
On July 26, 1947, President Truman passed the National Security Act of 1947 which set up the National Military Establishment which would begin active operations in September, 1947. The Establishment had the unfortunate abbreviation NME which sounds like ‘enemy’ and it was, in 1949, baptized the DoD.
Until the creation of the DoD, US armed forces were separated into different departments which lacked any real central authority. The Marine Corps was still a separate service under the control of Naval Department while the Coast Guard remained under the control of the Treasury Department.
The Department’s budget was about 7 billion in 2007 though this figure does not include tens of billions more in spent on ’supplementary’ things like nuclear weapons tests.
In time of war, the Department has authority over the Coast Guard. Under the terms of the US Code, the Coast Guard is always considered one of the five branches of the US armed services. During times of declared war the Coast Guard works as a part of the Navy even though the Coast Guard has not been under the full control of Navy since World War 2.
The official command structure of the DoD is set down by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, passed into law by President Ronald Reagan in October, 1986. The Act changed the command structure of the US military and it introduced the most significant changes to the Department since it was established.
Under the terms of the Act, the command passes from the US President, through the Secretary of Defense, to the commanders of all military forces (COCOM). The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is mainly responsible for readiness of the US military and behaves as the President’s military adviser while remaining outside of the chain of command.