90-767: The Pentagon Papers , officially titled Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force , is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1968. Released by Daniel Ellsberg , who had worked on the study, they were first brought to the attention of the public on the front page of The New York Times in 1971. A 1996 article in The New York Times said that
180-529: A plane crash one month after work began in June 1967, but the project continued under the direction of Defense Department official Les Gelb. Thirty-six analysts—half of them active-duty military officers, the rest academics and civilian federal employees—worked on the study. They worked to produce 47 volumes answering a list of 100 questions that McNamara (via his secretaries) had sent them, which included questions such as "How confident can we be about body counts of
270-707: A "long-run effort to contain China": There are three fronts to a long-run effort to contain China (realizing that the USSR "contains" China on the north and northwest): (a) the Japan–Korea front; (b) the India–Pakistan front; and (c) the Southeast Asia front. However, McNamara admitted that the containment of China would ultimately sacrifice a significant amount of America's time, money and lives. Years before
360-403: A January 1965 memorandum by Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton stated that an underlying justification was "not to help friend, but to contain China". On November 3, 1965, Secretary of Defense McNamara sent a memorandum to Johnson, in which he explained the "major policy decisions with respect to our course of action in Vietnam". The memorandum begins by disclosing the rationale behind
450-494: A March 2009 letter, Senator Carl Levin , Chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, wrote that the department was apparently exercising the authority to appoint other significant officials—termed Deputy Under Secretaries of Defense (DUSDs)—"without statutory authorization, without limitation, and without Senate confirmation." Levin was "concerned that the proliferation of DUSDs at multiple levels of
540-414: A coup against Diem. According to The New York Times , this U.S. representative was later identified to be CIA officer Lucien Conein . The Director of Central Intelligence , John A. McCone , proposed the following categories of military action: However, McCone did not believe these military actions alone could lead to an escalation of the situation because the "fear of escalation would probably restrain
630-530: A coup, the U.S. cut off its aid to President Diem and openly supported a successor government in what the authors called an "essentially leaderless Vietnam": For the military coup d'etat against Ngo Dinh Diem, the U.S. must accept its full share of responsibility. Beginning in August 1963 we variously authorized, sanctioned and encouraged the coup efforts of the Vietnamese generals and offered full support for
720-464: A military defense force stagnated as they focused on other concerns relevant to setting up the new government. President George Washington went to Congress to remind them of their duty to establish a military twice during this time. Finally, on the last day of the session, September 29, 1789, Congress created the War Department . The War Department handled naval affairs until Congress created
810-570: A successor government. In October we cut off aid to Diem in a direct rebuff, giving a green light to the generals. We maintained clandestine contact with them throughout the planning and execution of the coup and sought to review their operational plans and proposed new government. Thus, as the nine-year rule of Diem came to a bloody end, our complicity in his overthrow heightened our responsibilities and our commitment in an essentially leaderless Vietnam. As early as August 23, 1963, an unnamed U.S. representative had met with Vietnamese generals planning
900-649: A volume. The analysts largely used existing files in the Office of the Secretary of Defense . To keep the study secret from others, including National Security Advisor Walt Rostow , they conducted no interviews or consultations with the armed forces, with the White House, or with other federal agencies. McNamara left the Defense Department in February 1968, and his successor Clark Clifford received
990-610: Is not military, such as the Department of Homeland Security, counter-terrorism spending by the FBI, and intelligence-gathering spending by the NSA. In the 2010 United States federal budget , the Department of Defense was allocated a base budget of $ 533.7 billion, with a further $ 75.5 billion adjustment in respect of 2009, and $ 130 billion for overseas contingencies. The subsequent 2010 Department of Defense Financial Report shows
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#17327656604171080-489: Is the extent to which we should add elements to the above actions that would tend deliberately to provoke a DRV reaction, and consequent retaliation by us. Examples of actions to be considered were running US naval patrols increasingly close to the North Vietnamese coast and/or [ sic ] associating them with 34A operations . We believe such deliberately provocative elements should not be added in
1170-483: Is the secretary and their deputies, including predominantly civilian staff. OSD is the principal staff element of the Secretary of Defense in the exercise of policy development, planning, resource management, fiscal and program evaluation and oversight, and interface and exchange with other U.S. federal government departments and agencies, foreign governments, and international organizations, through formal and informal processes. OSD also performs oversight and management of
1260-891: Is to the U.S. president for managing the whole of the Executive branch of the federal government. OSD includes the immediate offices of the Secretary (SECDEF) and the Deputy Secretary of Defense (DEPSECDEF), as well as the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller); Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness; and Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security. All of these positions are Presidential appointments which require U.S. Senate confirmation, as do each of their sole deputies. Other positions include
1350-769: The Central Intelligence Agency , the National Security Council , National Security Resources Board , United States Air Force , and the Joint Chiefs of Staff . The act placed the National Military Establishment under the control of a single secretary of defense . The National Military Establishment formally began operations on September 18, the day after the Senate confirmed James V. Forrestal as
1440-970: The Eisenhower School (ES) and the National War College (NWC). Faced with rising tensions between the Thirteen Colonies and the British government , one of the first actions taken by the First Continental Congress in September 1774 was to recommend that the colonies begin defensive military preparations. In mid-June 1775, after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War , the Second Continental Congress , recognizing
1530-658: The Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred on August 2, 1964, the U.S. government was indirectly involved in Vietnam's affairs by sending advisers or (military personnel) to train the South Vietnamese soldiers: In a section of the Pentagon Papers titled "Kennedy Commitments and Programs", America's commitment to South Vietnam was attributed to the creation of the country by the United States. As acknowledged by
1620-523: The Navy Department in 1798. The secretaries of each department reported directly to the president as cabinet-level advisors until 1949, when all military departments became subordinate to the Secretary of Defense. After the end of World War II , President Harry Truman proposed the creation of a unified department of national defense. In a special message to the Congress on December 19, 1945,
1710-622: The Office of the Director of National Intelligence . They fulfill the requirements of national policymakers and war planners, serve as Combat Support Agencies , and also assist and deploy alongside non-Department of Defense intelligence or law enforcement services such as the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation . The military services each have their intelligence elements that are distinct from but subject to coordination by national intelligence agencies under
1800-487: The Pentagon Papers had demonstrated, among other things, that Lyndon B. Johnson's administration had "systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress." The Pentagon Papers revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in the Vietnam War with coastal raids on North Vietnam and Marine Corps attacks—none of which were reported in the mainstream media. For his disclosure of
1890-501: The Pentagon Papers were declassified and publicly released. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara created the Vietnam Study Task Force on June 17, 1967, for the purpose of writing an "encyclopedic history of the Vietnam War ". McNamara claimed that he wanted to leave a written record for historians, to prevent policy errors in future administrations, although Leslie H. Gelb , then director of Policy Planning at
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#17327656604171980-525: The Pentagon Papers , Ellsberg was initially charged with conspiracy, espionage, and theft of government property; charges were later dismissed, after prosecutors investigating the Watergate scandal discovered that the staff members in the Nixon White House had ordered the so-called White House Plumbers to engage in unlawful efforts to discredit Ellsberg. In June 2011, the documents forming
2070-703: The deputy secretary of defense . Secretaries of military departments, in turn, normally exercise authority over their forces by delegation through their respective service chiefs (i.e., Chief of Staff of the Army , Commandant of the Marine Corps , Chief of Naval Operations , Chief of Staff of the Air Force , and Chief of Space Operations ) over forces not assigned to a Combatant Command . Secretaries of Military Departments and service chiefs do not possess operational command authority over U.S. troops (this power
2160-467: The fiscal year 2024 (FY2024) presidential budget request was $ 842 billion. In January 2023 Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the US government would hit its $ 31.4 trillion debt ceiling on 19 January 2023; the date on which the US government would no longer be able to use extraordinary measures such as issuance of Treasury securities is estimated to be in June 2023. On 3 June 2023,
2250-646: The Army , Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of the Air Force ), appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate . They have the legal authority under Title 10 of the United States Code to conduct all the affairs of their respective departments within which the military services are organized. The secretaries of the Military Departments are (by law) subordinate to the secretary of defense and (by SecDef delegation) to
2340-592: The Assistant Secretaries of Defense, Assistants to the Secretary of Defense, General Counsel , Director, Operational Test and Evaluation , Director of Administration and Management , and other staff offices that the Secretary establishes in order to assist in carrying out their assigned responsibilities. The Secretary and Deputy Secretary manage several Under Secretaries each of whom in turn manage several Assistant Secretaries of Defense . There are also several special officers reporting directly to
2430-603: The CIA's human intelligence efforts while also focusing on military human intelligence priorities. These agencies are directly overseen by the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security . The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is a body of senior uniformed leaders in the Department of Defense who advise the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council , the National Security Council and
2520-796: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) as the "principal military adviser to the President, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council, and the Secretary of Defense". The remaining Joint Chiefs of Staff may only have their advice relayed to the President, National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council , or the Secretary of Defense after submitting it to the CJCS. By law,
2610-691: The Chinese were conspiring to "organize all of Asia" against the United States: China—like Germany in 1917, like Germany in the West and Japan in the East in the late 30s, and like the USSR in 1947—looms as a major power threatening to undercut our importance and effectiveness in the world and, more remotely but more menacingly, to organize all of Asia against us. To encircle the Chinese, the United States aimed to establish "three fronts" as part of
2700-569: The Communists from a major military response ... Barely a month after the Gulf of Tonkin incident on August 2, 1964, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy warned that further provocations should not be undertaken until October, when the government of South Vietnam (GVN) would become fully prepared for a full-scale war against North Vietnam. In a memorandum addressed to President Johnson on September 8, 1964, Bundy wrote: The main further question
2790-700: The Communists". In a memorandum addressed to President Johnson on July 28, 1964, McCone explained: In response to the first or second categories of action, local Communist military forces in the areas of actual attack would react vigorously, but we believe that none of the Communist powers involved would respond with major military moves designed to change the nature of the conflict ... Air strikes on North Vietnam itself (Category 3) would evoke sharper Communist reactions than air strikes confined to targets in Laos, but even in this case fear of escalation would probably restrain
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2880-562: The Defense Agencies, Department of Defense Field Activities, and specialized Cross Functional Teams . OSD is a parent agency of the following defense agencies: Several defense agencies are members of the United States Intelligence Community . These are national-level intelligence services that operate under the Department of Defense jurisdiction but simultaneously fall under the authorities of
2970-541: The Department of Defense are in Title 10 of the United States Code . Other significant legislation related to the Department of Defense includes: Office of the Secretary of Defense The Office of the Secretary of Defense ( OSD ) is a headquarters-level staff of the United States Department of Defense . It is the principal civilian staff element of the U.S. Secretary of Defense , and it assists
3060-523: The Department of Defense budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance, cleanup, and production, which is in the Department of Energy budget, Veterans Affairs, the Treasury Department's payments in pensions to military retirees and widows and their families, interest on debt incurred in past wars, or State Department financing of foreign arms sales and militarily-related development assistance. Neither does it include defense spending that
3150-474: The Department of Defense. Department of Defense manages the nation's coordinating authorities and assets in disciplines of signals intelligence , geospatial intelligence , and measurement and signature intelligence , and also builds, launches, and operates the Intelligence Community's satellite assets. Department of Defense also has its own human intelligence service , which contributes to
3240-546: The Deputy Secretary of Defense (DEPSECDEF), all five Under Secretaries of Defense (USDs), and all Assistant Secretaries of Defense (ASDs), as well as any officials specifically designated in U.S. Code have historically been considered Presidentially-Appointed, Senate-Confirmed (PAS) officials, in that the Senate must provide "advice and consent" for each individual before he or she can operate in an official capacity. In
3330-600: The FY 2019 budget: "The overall number you often hear is $ 716 billion. That is the amount of funding for national defense, the accounting code is 050 and includes more than simply the Department of Defense. It includes, for example, the Department of Energy and others. That large a number, if you back out the $ 30 billion for non-defense agencies, you get to $ 686 billion. That is the funding for the Department of Defense, split between $ 617 billion in base and $ 69 billion in overseas contingency ". The Department of Defense budget encompasses
3420-520: The FY2018 Budget expired and the FY2019 budget came into effect. The FY2019 Budget for the Department of Defense is approximately $ 686,074,048,000 (Including Base + Overseas Contingency Operations + Emergency Funds) in discretionary spending and $ 8,992,000,000 in mandatory spending totaling $ 695,066,000,000 Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller) David L. Norquist said in a hearing regarding
3510-812: The Joint Chiefs of Staff ( JCS ) and the Joint Staff ( JS ), Office of the Inspector General ( DODIG ), the Combatant Commands , the Military Departments ( Department of the Army (DA), Department of the Navy (DON) & Department of the Air Force (DAF)), the Defense Agencies and Department of Defense Field Activities , the National Guard Bureau (NGB), and such other offices, agencies, activities, organizations, and commands established or designated by law, or by
3600-588: The NDAA on 14 December 2023. The Senate will next undertake negotiations on supplemental spending for 2024. A government shutdown was averted on 23 March 2024 with the signing of a $ 1.2 trillion bill to cover FY2024. A 2013 Reuters investigation concluded that Defense Finance & Accounting Service , the Department of Defense's primary financial management arm, implements monthly "unsubstantiated change actions"—illegal, inaccurate "plugs"—that forcibly make DoD's books match Treasury's books. Reuters reported that
3690-1106: The National Security Agency ( NSA ), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency ( NGA ), and the National Reconnaissance Office ( NRO ). Other Defense agencies include the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ), the Defense Logistics Agency ( DLA ), the Missile Defense Agency ( MDA ), the Defense Health Agency ( DHA ), Defense Threat Reduction Agency ( DTRA ), the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency ( DCSA ),
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3780-416: The Pentagon was the only federal agency that had not released annual audits as required by a 1992 law. According to Reuters, the Pentagon "annually reports to Congress that its books are in such disarray that an audit is impossible". In 2015, a Pentagon consulting firm performed an audit on the Department of Defense's budget. It found that there was $ 125 billion in wasteful spending that could be saved over
3870-449: The Pentagon, has said that the notion that they were commissioned as a "cautionary tale" is a motive that McNamara only used in retrospect. McNamara told others, such as Dean Rusk , that he only asked for a collection of documents rather than the studies he received. Motives aside, McNamara neglected to inform either President Lyndon Johnson or Secretary of State Dean Rusk about the study. One report claimed that McNamara had planned to give
3960-442: The President to the Secretary of Defense, the service chief of the Unified Combatant Commander(s), and then to the unified combatant commander(s). Also provided in this legislation was a centralized research authority, the Advanced Research Projects Agency , eventually known as DARPA . The act was written and promoted by the Eisenhower administration and was signed into law on August 6, 1958. The Secretary of Defense , appointed by
4050-407: The Secretary in carrying out authority, direction and control of the Department of Defense in the exercise of policy development, planning, resource management, fiscal, and program evaluation responsibilities. OSD (along with the Joint Staff ) is the Secretary of Defense's support staff for managing the Department of Defense, and it corresponds to what the Executive Office of the President of the U.S.
4140-464: The Secretary may, at his or her discretion, appoint within OSD five additional non-PAS DUSDs beyond the five statutory PAS-PDUSDs. The USD(I) appears to be maintaining at least three non-PAS DUSDs, although they have been renamed. The USD (AT&L) has maintained the non-PAS DUSD for Installations and Environment, though the FY11 NDAA recommended merging this post with the newly created ASD for Operational Energy Plans and Programs. The USD(P) has maintained
4230-456: The Secretary of Defense. Major elements of OSD (listed hierarchically): The composition of OSD is in a state of consistent flux, as Congress and DoD routinely create new offices, redesignate existing ones, and abolish others. During the Obama administration, Congress has sought to clarify the organization of OSD, and has worked with the department to move toward a standardization of official naming conventions. Many Defense officials, including
4320-458: The Space Development Agency ( SDA ) and the Pentagon Force Protection Agency ( PFPA ), all of which are subordinate to the secretary of defense. Additionally, the Defense Contract Management Agency ( DCMA ) is responsible for administering contracts for the Department of Defense. Military operations are managed by eleven regional or functional unified combatant commands . The Department of Defense also operates several joint services schools, including
4410-521: The U.S. government directly related to national security and the United States Armed Forces . As of November 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense is the second largest employer in the world after India (and potentially China, if including the Central Military Commission), with over 1.4 million active-duty service personnel, including soldiers, marines, sailors, airmen, and guardians. The Department of Defense also maintains over 778,000 National Guard and reservists, and over 747,000 civilians, bringing
4500-402: The U.S., 1940–1950 (1 Vol.) II. U.S. Involvement in the Franco–Viet Minh War, 1950–1954 (1 Vol.) III. The Geneva Accords (1 Vol.) IV. Evolution of the War (26 Vols.) V. Justification of the War (11 Vols.) VI. Settlement of the Conflict (6 Vols.) Although President Johnson stated that the aim of the Vietnam War was to secure an "independent, non-Communist South Vietnam ",
4590-425: The Unified Combatant Commands are responsible for military forces' actual operational command. Almost all operational U.S. forces are under the authority of a Unified Command. The Unified Commands are governed by a Unified Command Plan —a frequently updated document (produced by the DoD), which lays out the Command's mission, geographical/functional responsibilities, and force structure. During military operations,
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#17327656604174680-422: The United States , the latter of which is also the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces . Beneath the Department of Defense are three subordinate military departments: the Department of the Army , the Department of the Navy , and the Department of the Air Force . In addition, four national intelligence services are subordinate to the Department of Defense: the Defense Intelligence Agency ( DIA ),
4770-434: The United States at a cost of US$ 12.7 million. It was hoped that Diem's regime, after receiving a significant amount of U.S. assistance, would be able to withstand the Viet Cong . The papers identified General Edward Lansdale , who served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as a "key figure" in the establishment of Diem as the President of South Vietnam, and
4860-521: The allocation for the Department of Defense was $ 585 billion, the highest level of budgetary resources among all federal agencies, and this amounts to more than one-half of the annual federal expenditures in the United States federal budget discretionary budget . On September 28, 2018, President Donald Trump signed the Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019 (H.R.6157) into law. On September 30, 2018,
4950-403: The backing of Diem's regime thereafter. As written by Lansdale in a 1961 memorandum: "We (the U.S.) must support Ngo Dinh Diem until another strong executive can replace him legally." According to the Pentagon Papers , the U.S. government played a key role in the 1963 South Vietnamese coup , in which Diem was assassinated. While maintaining "clandestine contact" with Vietnamese generals planning
5040-406: The bombing of North Vietnam in February 1965: The February decision to bomb North Vietnam and the July approval of Phase I deployments make sense only if they are in support of a long-run United States policy to contain China . McNamara accused China of harboring imperial aspirations like those of the German Empire , Nazi Germany , Imperial Japan and the Soviet Union . According to McNamara,
5130-438: The budgeted global military spending – more than the next 7 largest militaries combined. By 2019, the 27th secretary of defense had begun a line-by-line review of the defense budget; in 2020 the secretary identified items amounting to $ 5.7 billion, out of a $ 106 billion subtotal (the so-called "fourth estate" agencies such as missile defense, and defense intelligence, amounting to 16% of the defense budget), He will re-deploy to
5220-404: The chain of command runs from the president to the secretary of defense to the combatant commanders of the Combatant Commands. As of 2019 , the United States has eleven Combatant Commands, organized either on a geographical basis (known as " area of responsibility ", AOR) or on a global, functional basis: Department of Defense spending in 2017 was 3.15% of GDP and accounted for about 38% of
5310-430: The chairman has to present that advice whenever he is presenting his own. The chain of command goes from the president to the secretary of defense to the commanders of the Combatant Commands . Goldwater–Nichols also created the office of vice-chairman, and the chairman is now designated as the principal military adviser to the secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council, the National Security Council and to
5400-655: The copies delivered by mail first to Greenfield's apartment, then Greenfield and his wife drove them to multiple rooms at the New York Hilton Midtown , where Sheehan, Rosenthal, Greenfield, deputy foreign editors Gerald Gold and Allan M. Siegal , and a team of three writers Fox Butterfield , Hedrick Smith , and E. W. Kenworthy, and researcher Linda Amster worked around the clock to organize and summarize them for publication. Before publication, The New York Times sought legal advice. The paper's regular outside counsel, Lord Day & Lord , advised against publication, but in-house counsel James Goodale prevailed with his argument that
5490-611: The country, but this was to be replaced by other plans. Daniel Ellsberg knew the leaders of the task force well. He had worked as an aide to McNaughton from 1964 to 1965, had worked on the study for several months in 1967, and Gelb and Halperin approved his access to the work at RAND in 1969. Now opposing the war, Ellsberg and his friend Anthony Russo photocopied the study in October 1969 intending to disclose it. Ellsberg approached Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger , Senators William Fulbright and George McGovern , and others, but none were interested. Ellsberg showed some of
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#17327656604175580-440: The debt ceiling was suspended until 2025. The $ 886 billion National Defense Authorization Act is facing reconciliation of the House and Senate bills after passing both houses 27 July 2023; the conferees have to be chosen, next. As of September 2023, a Continuing resolution is needed to prevent a Government shutdown . A shutdown was avoided on 30 September for 45 days (until 17 November 2023), with passage of
5670-438: The department were streamlined while still maintaining the ordinary jurisdiction of the Military Departments to organize, train, and equip their associated forces. The Act clarified the overall decision-making authority of the secretary of defense concerning these subordinate Military Departments. It more clearly defined the operational chain of command over U.S. military forces (created by the military departments) as running from
5760-410: The documents privately to sympathetic policy experts Marcus Raskin and Ralph Stavins of the Institute for Policy Studies . They declined to publish the papers, but passed on some of them to, and recommended he seek The New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan , whom Ellsberg had first met in Vietnam and was reintroduced to by Raskin and Stavins. After discussing them in February 1971, Ellsberg gave 43 of
5850-483: The enemy? Were programs to pacify the Vietnamese countryside working? What was the basis of President Johnson's credibility gap? Was Ho Chi Minh an Asian Tito ? Did the U.S. violate the Geneva Accords on Indochina?" Some of the analysts included Daniel Ellsberg, Morton Halperin , Paul Warnke , future generals Paul F. Gorman and John Galvin , historian Melvin Gurtov, economists Hans Heymann and Richard Moorstein, and future top diplomat Richard Holbrooke , who drafted
5940-508: The finished study on January 15, 1969, five days before Richard Nixon 's inauguration, although Clifford claimed he never read it. Gelb said in 1991 that he presented the study to McNamara in early 1969, when the latter was president of the World Bank , but McNamara did not read it then, and as late as 2018 Gelb did not know if McNamara ever read the study later in his life. The study consisted of 3,000 pages of historical analysis and 4,000 pages of original government documents in 47 volumes, and
6030-456: The first secretary of defense. The National Military Establishment was renamed the "Department of Defense" on August 10, 1949, and absorbed the three cabinet-level military departments, in an amendment to the original 1947 law. The renaming is alleged to be due to the Establishment's abbreviation, NME, being pronounced "enemy". Under the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1958 ( Pub. L. 85–599 ), channels of authority within
6120-404: The immediate future while the GVN is still struggling to its feet. By early October, however, we may recommend such actions depending on GVN progress and Communist reaction in the meantime, especially to US naval patrols. While maritime operations played a key role in the provocation of North Vietnam, U.S. military officials had initially proposed to fly a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over
6210-404: The jurisdiction of other congressional committees. The Department of Defense is unique because it is one of the few federal entities where the majority of its funding falls into the discretionary category. The majority of the entire federal budget is mandatory, and much of the discretionary funding in the budget consists of DoD dollars. * Numbers may not add due to rounding As of 10 March 2023
6300-447: The latest Center for Effective Government analysis of 15 federal agencies which receive the most Freedom of Information Act requests, published in 2015 (using 2012 and 2013 data, the most recent years available), the DoD earned 61 out of a possible 100 points, a D− grade. While it had improved from a failing grade in 2013, it still had low scores in processing requests (55%) and disclosure rules (42%). The organization and functions of
6390-438: The majority of the National Defense Budget of approximately $ 716.0 billion in discretionary spending and $ 10.8 billion in mandatory spending for a $ 726.8 billion total. Of the total, $ 708.1 billion falls under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Armed Services and Senate Armed Services Committee and is subject to authorization by the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The remaining $ 7.9 billion falls under
6480-589: The modernization of hypersonics, artificial intelligence, and missile defense. Beyond 2021 the 27th secretary of defense is projecting the need for yearly budget increases of 3 to 5 percent to modernize. The Department of Defense accounts for the majority of federal discretionary spending. In FY 2017, the Department of Defense budgeted spending accounted for 15% of the U.S. federal budget, and 49% of federal discretionary spending , which represents funds not accounted for by pre-existing obligations. However, this does not include many military-related items that are outside
6570-658: The necessity of having a national army that could move about and fight beyond the boundaries of any particular colony, organized the Continental Army on June 14, 1775. This momentous event is commemorated in the U.S. annually as Flag Day . Later that year, Congress would charter the Continental Navy on October 13, and the Continental Marines on November 10. Upon the seating of the 1st U.S. Congress on March 4, 1789, legislation to create
6660-579: The next five years without layoffs or reduction in military personnel. In 2016, The Washington Post uncovered that rather than taking the advice of the auditing firm, senior defense officials suppressed and hid the report from the public to avoid political scrutiny. In June 2016, the Office of the Inspector General released a report stating that the Army made $ 6.5 trillion in wrongful adjustments to its accounting entries in 2015. The Department of Defense failed its fifth audit in 2022, and could not account for more than 60% of its $ 3.5 trillion in assets. In
6750-536: The organization could muddy lines of authority and may not be in the best interest of the Department of Defense." Subsequent legislation established five Senate-confirmed Principal Deputies (i.e., "first assistants"), one for each Under Secretary of Defense. The FY10 NDAA gave the Department of Defense until January 1, 2011, to eliminate or redesignate all other Deputy Under Secretaries who are not Principal Deputy Under Secretaries of Defense (PDUSDs). The FY11 NDAA extended this deadline to January 1, 2015. During that time,
6840-692: The papers: We must note that South Vietnam (unlike any of the other countries in Southeast Asia) was essentially the creation of the United States. In a sub-section titled "Special American Commitment to Vietnam", the papers emphasized once again the role played by the United States: More specifically, the United States sent US$ 28.4 million worth of equipment and supplies to help the Diem regime strengthen its army. In addition, 32,000 men from South Vietnam's Civil Guard were trained by
6930-544: The president cited wasteful military spending and interdepartmental conflicts. Deliberations in Congress went on for months focusing heavily on the role of the military in society and the threat of granting too much military power to the executive. On July 26, 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 , which set up a unified military command known as the National Military Establishment and created
7020-608: The president following U.S. Senate confirmation. Each of the individual Military Service Chiefs, outside their Joint Chiefs of Staff obligations, works directly for the secretary of the military department concerned: the Secretary of the Army , Secretary of the Navy , and Secretary of the Air Force . Following the Goldwater–Nichols Act in 1986, the Joint Chiefs of Staff no longer maintained operational command authority individually or collectively. The act designated
7110-559: The president on military matters. The composition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is defined by statute and consists of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (VCJCS), senior enlisted advisor to the chairman (SEAC), the Military Service chiefs from the Army , Marine Corps , Navy , Air Force , and Space Force , in addition to the chief of National Guard Bureau , all appointed by
7200-478: The president or by the secretary of defense. Department of Defense Directive 5100.01 describes the organizational relationships within the department and is the foundational issuance for delineating the major functions of the department. The latest version, signed by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in December 2010, is the first major re-write since 1987. The Office of the Secretary of Defense ( OSD )
7290-470: The president with the advice and consent of the Senate , is by federal law ( 10 U.S.C. § 113 ) the head of the Department of Defense, "the principal assistant to the President in all matters relating to Department of Defense", and has "authority, direction, and control over the Department of Defense". Because the Constitution vests all military authority in Congress and the president,
7380-570: The president. The Joint Staff (JS) is a headquarters staff at the Pentagon made up of personnel from all five services that assist the chairman and vice chairman in discharging their duties. It is managed by the Director of the Joint Staff (DJS) who is a lieutenant general or vice admiral . There are three military departments within the Department of Defense: The Military Departments are each headed by their secretary (i.e., Secretary of
7470-409: The press had a First Amendment right to publish information significant to the people's understanding of their government's policy. United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense ( DoD , USDOD , or DOD ) is an executive branch department of the federal government of the United States charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of
7560-421: The statutory authority of the secretary of defense is derived from their constitutional authority. Since it is impractical for either Congress or the president to participate in every piece of Department of Defense affairs, the secretary of defense and the secretary's subordinate officials generally exercise military authority. The Department of Defense is composed of the Office of the Secretary of Defense ( OSD ),
7650-456: The total budgetary resources for fiscal year 2010 were $ 1.2 trillion. Of these resources, $ 1.1 trillion were obligated and $ 994 billion were disbursed, with the remaining resources relating to multi-year modernization projects requiring additional time to procure. After over a decade of non-compliance , Congress has established a deadline of Fiscal year 2017 for the Department of Defense to achieve audit readiness . In 2015
7740-535: The total to over 2.91 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia , just outside Washington, D.C. , the Department of Defense's stated mission is "to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security". The Department of Defense is headed by the secretary of defense , a cabinet-level head who reports directly to the president of
7830-582: The volumes to Sheehan on March 2. Ellsberg had initially requested that Sheehan only take notes of the study in Ellsberg's apartment; Sheehan disobeyed, frantically copying them in numerous shops in the Boston area at the urging of and with help from his wife Susan Sheehan , and flying with the copies to Washington, where he and an editor there worked in a hotel room at The Jefferson to organize and read them. Editors A. M. Rosenthal and James L. Greenfield had
7920-497: The work to his friend, Robert F. Kennedy , who was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 . McNamara later denied it, though he admitted that he should have informed Johnson and Rusk. Instead of using existing Defense Department historians, McNamara assigned his close aide and Assistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton to collect the papers. McNamara wanted the study done in three months. McNaughton died in
8010-431: Was classified as "Top Secret – Sensitive". ("Sensitive" is not an official security designation ; it meant that access to the study should be controlled.) The task force published 15 copies; the think tank RAND Corporation received two of the copies from Gelb, Morton Halperin and Paul Warnke, with access granted if at least two of the three approved. The 47 volumes of the papers were organized as follows: I. Vietnam and
8100-536: Was stripped from them in the Defense Reorganization Act of 1958 ), and instead, Military Departments are tasked solely with "the training, provision of equipment, and administration of troops." A unified combatant command is a military command composed of personnel/equipment from at least two Military Departments, which has a broad/continuing mission. These military departments are responsible for equipping and training troops to fight, while
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