by William Kristol
The “Department of Defense” has existed for over three-quarters of a century. In 1947 Congress passed the National Security Act merging the Navy and War departments and a newly established Air Force into one organization called the National Military Establishment, headed by a secretary of defense. In 1949 Congress renamed the agency the Department of Defense.
Harry Truman knew a fair amount about war. After enlisting in the Army in 1917—at the age of 33 he was too old for the draft—he served in combat in the World War I, commanding Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery Regiment in the 35th Division. As president, Truman presided over the end of the World War II and ordered troops into combat in Korea. He championed and signed the legislation establishing and naming the Department of Defense.
Most of Truman’s successors over the next four decades, from Dwight D. Eisenhower through George H.W. Bush, served in World War II. So far as I know, they too expressed no dissatisfaction with the name Department of Defense. To the degree they considered the question, they may have appreciated a name that seemed to convey the fact that in the modern world, the United States needed a permanent and robust national security establishment that could both prepare for war but also deter future ones.
President Trump, whose bone spurs prevented him from serving in Vietnam, begs to differ. He doesn’t like the name Department of Defense. He prefers the name from the good old days, the Department of War.
Why? Well, as Trump explained in August, “We had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,” citing the two world wars. This week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth echoed his boss, telling Fox & Friends: “We won World War I and World War II, not with the Department of Defense, but with the Department of War.” World War I and World War II—those were the good old days!
Now Donald Trump can’t actually change the name of the Department of Defense. That would require action by Congress, and his administration apparently doesn’t want to go to Congress to secure the name change. As the Washington Post reports:
Based on the document describing the change, the administration may be seeking to circumvent congressional action by saying the action would use the Department of War “as a secondary title for the Department of Defense.” However, it would authorize Hegseth and the department to “use secondary titles such as ‘Secretary of War,’ ‘Department of War,’ and ‘Deputy Secretary of War’ in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch,” the document says.
But if this name change is so important to Donald Trump, why not go all the way? Why accept a second-class status for his cherished “Department of War” moniker? Why not go to Congress to make his case for a fully codified return to the days of World War I and World War II?
Is he scared of a debate where decorated combat veterans like Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly or Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton can say whether they were hampered by service in a military that was part of a Department of Defense rather than Department of War? Is he scared of testimony from former secretaries of defense—like Leon Panetta and James Mattis—as to whether they would have been better at their jobs if they’d been called secretaries of war? Is he scared to defend his childish nostalgia for the days of world war?
Or would he beg off that debate—perhaps because of bone spurs?