The War Department, a step back in American history

(Washington) Donald Trump signed a decree on Friday formalizing the new name of the Defense Department, renamed Department of War. But the American president may not have the power to unilaterally decide on this change of name, the name department of defense resulting from a Congress Act.

The War Department, the name desired by Donald Trump to now qualify the United States Defense Ministry, is in fact an ancient name in American government history.

In August 1789, shortly after the creation of the United States, a Ministry of War was responsible for supervising the Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps.

A little less than ten years later, the navy obtained its own ministry which also encompasses the body of the Navies in 1834. The Ministry of War then recovered the newly created air force.

It was after the Second World War that this ministry was going to live a deep reorganization and change its name.

In July 1947, the National Security Act signed by President Harry Truman created a “national military establishment”, with a defense secretary at his head who oversees the army, air and navy.

Two years later, the law is amended to give it the official name of the Ministry of Defense. It also removes the three ministerial armchairs from army, naval and air force managers, transforming them into a lower rank.

The ministry takes up residence within the Pentagon, near Washington, by the Potomac river.

This immense building brings together the 17 buildings in a growing ministry because of the Second World War.

With more than three million civilian and military employees, the Defense Ministry is today the largest employer in the United States.

Donald Trump, who renamed it on Friday by decree in the ministry of war, may not have the power to unilaterally decide on this change of name, the name Ministry of Defense resulting from a Congress Act.

The White House spoke Thursday of the new name as a simple secondary name but the presidential decree enjoined the secretary Pete Hegseth to take all the measures, in particular from the legislative power, to “permanently rename” the Ministry of Defense in the Ministry of War.