According to a White House official, the administration of US President Donald Trump is developing plans to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, continuing the president's attempts to revive a name last used in 1947. This is reported by UNN with reference to The Wall Street Journal.
Details
The restoration of the abolished name of the largest government department could be done by a decision of Congress, but the White House is considering other ways to make changes, according to an official. Trump has repeatedly raised this idea since taking office.
As the Department of War, we won everything. We won everything. I think we'll have to go back to that
According to a former official, the Pentagon began developing legislative proposals for changes in the first weeks of Trump's second term. One idea was to ask Congress to authorize the restoration of the former name during a national emergency, and to revive the position of Secretary of War for the department's top civilian official
The old name "has a stronger sound"
The Pentagon began developing legislative proposals for rebranding at the beginning of the president's second term.
The structure of the military has changed significantly since the creation of the War Department in 1789, as has the name of the bureaucracy that controlled it. Initially, the War Department controlled the army, while a separate Department of the Navy managed the naval forces and marines.
After World War II, seeking to increase efficiency, President Harry S. Truman merged the armed forces into one organization, initially called the National Military Establishment under a bill passed by Congress in 1947. The legislation merged the Navy and War Departments, as well as the newly independent Air Force, into a single organization headed by a civilian Secretary of Defense.
Much of the opposition to the change arose from the abolition of the Navy's status as an independent department.
We will fight on the Hill, in the Senate chamber, and on the White House lawn. We will never give up
Congress abolished the National Military Establishment in 1949 and renamed it the Department of Defense, giving the cabinet secretary more authority to oversee the services, including their procurement procedures. This raised concerns that the expanded powers would make the Secretary of Defense a "military dictator," according to an article in the Los Angeles Daily News in July 1949.
Trump expressed concern that the position was not warlike enough. In April, during an Oval Office event, he said that the Secretary of Defense was previously known as the Secretary of War.
They changed that when we became a little politically correct
He raised the idea of reviving the position at the NATO summit in The Hague in June.
It used to be called the Secretary of War. Maybe we'll have to start thinking about changing it
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke on Tuesday during a cabinet meeting, saying that the Department of Defense "just sounds wrong."
Addition
US President Donald Trump announced his intention to rename the Department of Defense to the "Department of Offense" or "Department of War." This requires the approval of the US Congress.