ABSTRACT
Secretary of the Navy and the first Secretary of Defense. He preserved Navy missions in the face of powerful political efforts to radically reduce the Navy’s defence missions at the end of WW2. Subsequent to serving as Secretary of the Navy, 1944-47, he was named the first Secretary of Defense by President Truman in September 1947. President Franklin ROOSEVELT appointed him previously to the civilian leadership of the Navy in May 1944, after having made him Under Secretary of the Navy in August 1940. He fought hard and effectively against those who maintained that there was minimal or no need for a Navy or Marine Corps in the post-WW2 era of ‘atomic warfare’, often angering President Truman and many of the President’s political allies.
