United States Secretary of Defense

United States Secretary of Defense
Official Seal
Incumbent Robert Gates since December 18, 2006
Formation	September 19, 1947
Succession	Sixth
Website	www.defense.gov

The United States Secretary of Defense (SecDef) is the head of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), concerned with the armed services and military matters. This position roughly corresponds to Minister of defense in other countries. The role of the Secretary of Defense is to be the principal defense policy advisor to the President and is responsible for the formulation of general defense policy related to all matters of direct and primary concern to the DoD, and for the execution of approved policy.^[1] The Secretary is appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate, and is a member of the Cabinet. Per federal law (10 U.S.C. § 113), a person may not be appointed as Secretary of Defense within seven years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force .^[2] The Secretary of Defense is sixth in the presidential line of succession. The Secretary of Defense earns a salary of $191,300 per year.

History

The position was created in 1947, when the newly created Air Force was merged into the new National Military Establishment. In the same massive reorganization, the Secretary of War was replaced by the Secretary of the Army and, along with the Secretary of the Navy and the new Secretary of the Air Force, became nominally placed under the Secretary of Defense. In 1949, the National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense, which remains the current name of the department and the Secretaries of the Military Departments were removed from the Cabinet and the National Security Council.

Standard of the Secretary of Defense

Organization

In the U.S. Armed Forces, the Secretary of Defense is often referred to as SecDef or SD. The Secretary of Defense and the President together constitute the National Command Authorities (NCA),^[3] which has sole authority to launch strategic nuclear weapons. All nuclear weapons are governed by this dual-authority - both must concur before a strategic nuclear strike may be ordered.

The Secretary's staff element is called the Office of the Secretary of Defense and is composed of a Deputy Secretary of Defense and five Under Secretaries of Defense in the fields of Acquisition, Technology & Logistics; Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer; Intelligence; Personnel & Readiness; and Policy.

The Secretary of Defense by statute also exercises authority, direction and control over the three Secretaries of the Military Departments (Secretary of the Army, Secretary of the Navy & Secretary of the Air Force), the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Chief of Staff, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Naval Operations & Air Force Chief of Staff), the Combatant Commanders of the Unified Combatant Commands, the Directors of the Defense Agencies (for example the Director of the National Security Agency) and of the DoD Field Activities. All of these high-ranking positions require Senate confirmation.

Along with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense is generally regarded as one of the Big Four important cabinet officials.

List of Secretaries of Defense

#	Picture	Name	State of Residence	Took Office	Left Office	President(s) served under
1		James Vincent Forrestal	Minnesota	September 19, 1947	March 19, 1949	Harry S. Truman
2		Louis Arthur Johnson	Wisconsin	March 28, 1949	September 19, 1950
3		George Catlett Marshall, Jr.	Georgia	September 19, 1950	September 19, 1951
4		Robert Abercrombie Lovett	New York	September 19, 1951	January 19, 1953
5		Charles Erwin Wilson	Alaska	January 19, 1953	October 8, 1957	Dwight D. Eisenhower
6		Neil Hosler McElroy	Ohio	October 9, 1957	December 1, 1959
7		Thomas Sovereign Gates	Pennsylvania	December 2, 1959	January 20, 1961
8		Robert Strange McNamara	Michigan	January 21, 1961	February 29, 1968	John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson
9		Clark McAdams Clifford	Kansas	March 1, 1968	January 20, 1969	Lyndon B. Johnson
10		Melvin Robert Laird	Wisconsin	January 22, 1969	January 29, 1973	Richard Nixon
11		Elliot Lee Richardson	Massachusetts	January 30, 1973	May 24, 1973
12		James Rodney Schlesinger	Virginia	July 2, 1973	November 19, 1975	Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford
13		Donald Henry Rumsfeld	Illinois	November 20, 1975	January 20, 1977	Gerald Ford
14		Harold Brown	California	January 21, 1977	January 20, 1981	Jimmy Carter
15		Caspar Willard Weinberger	California	January 21, 1981	November 23, 1987	Ronald Reagan
16		Frank Charles Carlucci III	Pennsylvania	November 23, 1987	January 20, 1989
-		William Howard Taft IV (acting)	Virginia	January 20, 1989	March 20, 1989	George H. W. Bush
17		Richard Bruce Cheney	Wyoming	March 21, 1989	January 20, 1993
18		Leslie Aspin, Jr.	Wisconsin	January 21, 1993	February 3, 1994	Bill Clinton
19		William James Perry	California	February 3, 1994	January 24, 1997
20		William Sebastian Cohen	Maine	January 24, 1997	January 20, 2001
21		Donald Henry Rumsfeld	Illinois	January 20, 2001	December 18, 2006	George W. Bush
22		Robert Michael Gates	Texas	December 18, 2006	Incumbent	George W. Bush, Barack Obama

Line of succession

In Executive Order 13533 of March 1, 2010, President Barack Obama modified the line of succession regarding who would act as Secretary of Defense in the event of a vacancy or incapacitation, thus reversing the changes made by President George W. Bush in Executive Order 13394 as to the relative positions of the Secretaries of the Military Departments:

1. Deputy Secretary of Defense;
2. Secretary of the Army;
3. Secretary of the Navy;
4. Secretary of the Air Force;
5. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics;
6. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy;
7. Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller);
8. Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness;
9. Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence;
10. Deputy Chief Management Officer, Department of Defense;
11. Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics;
12. Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy;
13. Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller);
14. Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness;
15. Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence;
16. Director of Defense Research and Engineering;
17. General Counsel of the Department of Defense, the Assistant Secretaries of Defense, the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Chemical and Biological Defense Programs, the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, the Director of Operational Energy Plans and Programs, and the Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation;
18. Under Secretaries of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force; and
19. Assistant Secretaries of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, and General Counsels of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force.

Living former Secretaries of Defense

• 10th - Melvin Robert Laird
• 12th - James Rodney Schlesinger
• 13th and 21st - Donald Henry Rumsfeld
• 14th - Harold Brown
• 16th - Frank Charles Carlucci III
• 17th - Richard Bruce Cheney
• 19th - William James Perry
• 20th - William Sebastian Cohen

See also

• List of United States Secretaries of Defense by time in office

Footnotes

References

• "Histories of the Secretaries of Defense". U.S. Department of Defense. http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/secdef_histories/. Retrieved September 3, 2002. 
• "Executive Order: Providing An Order of Succession Within the Department of Defense". Office of the Press Secretary. http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051222-7.html. Retrieved December 22, 2005. 
• "The Department of Defense Organizational Structure". U.S. Department of Defense. http://www.dod.mil/odam/omp/pubs/GuideBook/DoD.htm#Secretary%20of%20Defense. Retrieved November 13, 2006. 

External links

• The Reinvention of Robert Gates by Michael Crowley, The New Republic, November 9, 2009
• "Top Civilian and Military Leaders". U.S. Department of Defense. http://www.defenselink.mil/osd/topleaders.aspx. Retrieved October 13, 2007.  – Includes the Secretary of Defense
• More information on each position and biographies of the current Deputy Secretary (DepSecDef) and Under Secretaries (USDs)

United States Secretaries of Defense Forrestal • Johnson • Marshall • Lovett • Wilson • McElroy • T. Gates • McNamara • Clifford • Laird • Richardson • Schlesinger • Rumsfeld • Brown • Weinberger • Carlucci • Cheney • Aspin • Perry • Cohen • Rumsfeld • R. Gates

Agencies under the United States Department of Defense Headquarters: The Pentagon Secretary of Defense Deputy Secretary of Defense Office of the Secretary of Defense · Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee · Office of Net Assessment · Pentagon Force Protection Agency · Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Director, Defense Research and Engineering · Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency · Missile Defense Agency · Defense Contract Management Agency · Defense Logistics Agency · Defense Technical Information Center · Defense Threat Reduction Agency · Office of Economic Adjustment · Defense Acquisition University · Business Transformation Agency Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Defense Security Cooperation Agency · Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Defense Contract Audit Agency · Defense Finance and Accounting Service Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Defense Commissary Agency · Department of Defense Education Activity · DoD Human Resources Activity · Military Health System · Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences · Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute · Office of the Chancellor for Education and Professional Development Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Defense Intelligence Agency · Defense Security Service · Defense Information Systems Agency · National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency · National Reconnaissance Office · National Security Agency Service Departments Army: United States Army, Secretary Navy: United States Navy, United States Marine Corps, Secretary Air Force: United States Air Force, Secretary Joint Chiefs of Staff · Unified Combatant Command