Who was FDR's defense secretary?

Answer 1

Herbert Hoover did not have a Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of Defense was a position created under the National Defense Act of 1947. From the first days of the Republic up to that time there were two cabinet secretaries who had the duties later combined into the Secretary of Defense's portfolio. There was a Secretary of the Navy who was responsible for the Navy and the Navy's US Marine Corps, and a Secretary of War, who handled the Army, and after airplanes were invented and became militarized, the Air Force. The air force was part of the US Army as the US Army Air Force, until an independent US Air Force was created as a third branch by the same legislation in 1947 which combined the two previous cabinet positions into one new one.

Hoover's Secretary of Was was James W. Good in 1929, and then Patrick J. Hurley from 1929-33, after Good died suddenly in the autumn of 1929.

Hoover's Secretary of the Navy was Charles Francis Adams, great grandson of John Quincy Adams and great, great grandson of John Adams.

Answer 2

Lincoln had no Secretary of Defense. This Cabinet level post was not created until 1947. There were a cabinet positions of Secretary of the Army, held by Simon Cameron (until 1862) and Edwin Stanton and Secretary of Navy held by Gideon Welles.

Stanton was the Secretary of War. Generally speaking, it can be debated that this department was much like today's Department of Defense. Naturally over time things change.

Answer 3

Theodore Roosevelt HAD no sECRETARY OF dEFENSE. tHIS CABINET Office was not created until 1947.

Answer 4

Roosevelt died in 1945. The position of Secretary of Defense was established in 1947, and the first person to hold that office was James Forrestal.