PENTAGON75YEARS
A UNITED FORCE By Chuck Oldham
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The United States’ entrance into World War II changed everything. Just as the Pentagon provided a single headquarters building for all branches of the military to replace the many scattered buildings formerly housing various departments of the armed forces, the demands of total war made apparent the need to bring together each of the armed forces into a command structure forming a coherent whole. Meeting the demands of the war, the Joint Chiefs of Staff was formed to work with its British counterpart in planning combined operations against the Axis powers. Although it was not always completely successful in carrying out its mission, it did prove the advantages and even necessity of joint planning. Joint and combined operations played a crucial part in the Allied victory, and their success pointed the way toward the future. Tremendous advances in technology had also fused the elements of sea, air, and land battles together and made them interdependent, though this might not have been so readily apparent to the services, each of which had excelled in its own role. In the postwar aftermath, what should have been an atmosphere of celebration was not, instead devolving into interservice rivalry and infighting over diminishing funds. After the sacrifices of rationing and the curtailment of spending on civilian goods and enterprises during the war, the public clamored for military budget cuts, and the armed forces struggled over their roles in a vastly changed world. The advent of the atomic bomb and primitive guided missiles caused some critics to call into question the need for
Adm. William Leahy, seated at head of table, center, presides over a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Potsdam Conference in July 1945.
NATIONAL ARCHIVES PHOTO
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mong the many issues the framers of the Constitution weighed at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were the future size and role of the military. In the simplest sense, there were two camps: those who wanted a strong government and a standing army to protect the nation, and those who feared that a strong military could become the instrument of a free nation’s own destruction. Feelings ran deep, and there were battles both in framing the document and in its ratification. In the end, the Constitution’s military clauses were a series of checks and balances. Congress held the purse strings and reserved the power to raise and support armies and to declare war. Military command, however, resided in the executive branch, with the president as commander in chief. The one overriding concept was that of civilian control of the military. The existing secretary at war became the secretary of war, the primary military assistant to the president, and remained so for the next nine years. In April 1798, the Department of the Navy was created, and along with it the secretary of the navy. The secretary of war was in essence secretary of the army, and both services advised the president, who remained the sole arbiter of any disputes between the two. There were more than a few disputes, and efforts to unify planning and command in peace and war were never completely successful. Following the Civil War, failings were analyzed, studies conducted, proposals made, and bills presented to Congress urging better coordination between the services. The Joint Army and Navy Board was created in 1903, composed of members of each service and intended to plan joint operations and solve the problems of cooperation between the services. However, it lacked the authority to back up its recommendations. It survived both world wars, but was dissolved in 1947.
