I like Pete Hegseth as a person. As far as I know he hasn’t been corrupted …..yet.
Didn’t see this coming , hopefully he does an awesome job .
Considering the last handful of Secretaries the bar has been pretty low !
An Infantry Officer with multiple combat deployments who shoots straight is far better than any SECDEF we’ve had in a long, long time. Most of them have been lawyers, senior advisors, and more political types with little ground-truth experience.
From 1947-1997, we had these guys...
James Vincent Forrestal: After the highly-classified Majestic-12 committee hearings, they committed SECDEF Forrestal to a mental hospital against his will, denied his family access to him, then he “jumped out the window”. (In consequence of this, they named an Aircraft Carrier after him, CV-59, the same one that John McCain was on during the famous 1967 fire incident caused by an F-4B's Zuni rocket misfire.)
Louis Johnson (fired by Truman due to lack of confidence and replaced with Gen Marshall)
George C. Marshall: Famous among gun guys for his post-WWII AAR analyses that were controversial about what % of soldiers actually returned fire or engaged the enemy, soldier’s load, and various Infantry-related topics.
Rob Lovett
Charles E. Wilson
Neil H. McElroy
Thomas S. Gates Jr. (SECDEF during establishment of the nuke triad and Francis Gary Powers U-2 shoot-down over USSR)
Robert McNamara: JFK appointee, whiz kids, F-111 try-service fiasco, Gulf of Tonkin incident, Vietnam escalation under LBJ.
Clark Clifford: Oversaw the
USS Liberty Investigation before he was SECDEF and said they ran every possible scenario and still couldn’t understand how they attacked the ship. Continued most of McNamara’s policies, but was opposed to escalation of Vietnam already in 1965. He was later part of the BCCI international criminal money-laundering banking scandal used by elites to evade regulatory interference from the nations.
Melvin Laird: Instituted gradual reforms with service budget caps and force structures under those caps, decentralized leadership, cut total military force size from 3.5 million in FY69 to 2.3 million in FY73. Was in the Pentagon for the B-1A, F-15, F-16, A-10, and Los Angeles Nuke Sub contract starts. Henry Kissinger bypassed Laird to the JCS and undermined his leadership, by isolating him from the President as much as possible.
Elliot Richardson: Brief stint as SECDEF under Nixon before becoming US AG
Bill Clements: Acting SECDEF after Richardson went to AG
James R. Schlesinger: Revised US policy on NATO, proposing they bear more share of the conventional forces counter to the USSR, and not rely on US nuclear weapons as their main deterrence and strategy. He pushed for increased defense spending by NATO countries during his time from 1973-1975. Evacuation of Saigon and
SS Mayaguez happened under his time as SECDEF.
Donald Rumsfeld: Was brought in as the youngest SECDEF (43) after the "Halloween massacre" under Ford, along with George H.W. Bush as Director of CIA. He oversaw transition to an all-volunteer force, expansion of conventional and strategic forces, the Space Shuttle Program, and SALT II treaty.
Harold Brown: SECDEF under Jimmy Carter. Oversaw cancellation of B-1A but ordered USAF to continue its funded development. Emphasized existing nuclear triad programs to include B-52/ALCM combo instead of the Mach 2 B-1A/ALCM. Advanced Technology Bomber development was funded, as was initial MX/MIRV nuke missile to replace Minuteman and Titan missiles.
He also pushed for more NATO build-up among the NATO nations, and was part of the surrendering of the US claims on the Panama Canal Zone we built.
Caspar Weinberger 1981-1987: Reagan’s SECDEF who oversaw increased defense spending, reactivation of the B-1 program as the B-1B, increased force modernization, standards, deployment OPTEMPO, Joint Rapid Deployment Forces with the invasion of Grenada in Oct ’83, a simple plan to crush the Soviets by out-spending them in defense and overwhelming their capacity to keep pace with the US with the SDI program (as opposed to previous SECDEF/WH détente). 600-ship Navy, more nukes, more bombers, more fighters, more tanks, upgraded systems, missiles, and strengthening of NATO, Japan, and South Korea. Iran-Contra Affair
Frank Carlucci: He was Rumsfeld’s roommate at Princeton, went to Harvard, then into the State Dept. Filled in for Weinberger as SECDEF after Caspar resigned to take care of his wife. Carlucci part of Carlyle Group and PNAC, board of trustees for RAND, with holdings in General Dynamics, Westinghouse, and was Director of Wackenhut.
Dick Cheney: SECDEF under Bush41 from 1989-1993, where he slashed the budget and reduced US military personnel from 2.2 million to 1.8 million by ’93, while overseeing massive Base Realignment And Closures (BRAC). SECDEF during
Just Cause invasion of Panama in Dec ’89 to oust Manuel Noriega.
Desert Storm 1991 campaign that saw the most decisive 20th Century military victory over the 4th-largest army in the world, measured in days. Was very supportive of smart plans for the invasion, and not impressed with some of the dumb ones. Component commanders were Vietnam vets who didn’t want their hands tied, went to the WH stating up front they wanted to go in with gloves off and end it quickly, which both Cheney and President Bush fully supported.
Council on Foreign Relations Director, Halliburton board member and CEO, and JINSA board of advisors.
Les Aspin: SECDEF under Clinton from 1993-1994. Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell, bottom-up review (lol), peacekeeping focus, weakness, females in combat duty positions shoved onto the force, downgraded SDI, emphasized environmental clean-up for NATO and NATO Partners for Peace. Aspin argued in-favor of Russian President Boris Yeltsin who warned against NATO expansion, while Eastern Europe all were scrambling to join the alliance in fear of the inevitable. In Sep 1993, Les Aspin denied requests from Colin Powell and US TF Commander in Somalia for AC-130 and armor support in the “get Aidid” mission assigned to them.
William Perry: Weak, more appeasement, get rid of SDI, Rwanda, cut the DoD budget. More BRAC base closings announced in 1995. Continued to push Nunn-Lugar threat reduction act, which was used to also disarm Ukraine of conventional weapons. START II treaty proponent.