In the United States, the Ministry of Defense was renamed the Ministry of War. What does this mean?

US President Donald Trump has issued a decree renaming the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of War. Thus, he returned the department to its historical name, which had been used since the end of the 18th century. At the same time, formally, the "Ministry of War" will only be an additional name until it is approved by Congress. Why Trump did this and what is the difference between the two terms is in the Izvestia article.

Which decree was signed by Trump

• On September 5, Trump signed a decree "On the restoration of the United States Department of War," designed to restore the current Department of Defense to its historical name. In the preamble of the document, he pointed out that in 1789, the first President of the United States, George Washington, signed a law establishing the United States Department of War to oversee the functioning and maintenance of military and naval affairs.

• According to Trump, such a name better reflects the essence of the department, as it "demonstrates our ability and willingness to fight and win wars on behalf of our country at any time, and not just to protect." In this regard, the President decided that the Ministry of Defense should again be called the Ministry of War, and its head should be called the Minister of War.

• At the same time, the decree itself stipulates that the new names are additional and secondary, without fully replacing the official ones. The terms "Ministry of War" and "Minister of War" can still be used in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch. The wording of the laws should still include a reference to the Ministry of Defense and the Minister of Defense.

• The fact is that only the US Congress can rename the federal ministry and the title of its head by means of a separate law. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense officially retains its current name. However, Trump ordered the head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, to provide a recommendation within 60 days on the measures necessary for a complete renaming.

What was the Ministry of Defense called before

The prototype of the military department appeared in the United States during the War of Independence, which took place in 1775-1783. The army was managed by Congress through various committees and councils. Eventually, they were merged into the Ministry of War, which consisted of only five employees: the minister, his assistant, secretary and two employees.

The Ministry of War, which Trump mentioned in the decree, was created in 1789 and was no longer subordinate to Congress, but to the President of the United States. From this date, the current Pentagon usually traces its history. In 1798, the Naval Ministry was separated from it.

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The Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy existed in the United States until 1947. At that time, the National Security Law was passed, which simultaneously divided the Ministry of War into the Ministries of the Army and the Air Force, and then combined them with the Naval Ministry into a single national military department.

• The National Military Department was renamed two years later. According to a common version, they did not want to leave such a name for him, because his English abbreviation NME was too similar in sound to the word "enemy". In 1949, the department was named the "Ministry of Defense".

Why is the word "defense" used in the name?

• It is believed that in this way the administration of President Gary Truman wanted to emphasize that during the growing cold war with the USSR, the military department would deal specifically with defense issues, and not plan offensive actions. Although the word "war" has disappeared from the name of the department, it has been preserved in the names of educational institutions subordinate to it.

• However, the renaming did not lead to the United States dealing only with defense issues. After the Second World War, they participated in many more armed conflicts outside the country, which could hardly be explained by the need to defend their own territory. The very next year after the creation of the Department of Defense, the United States participated in the Korean War, and then there were such famous conflicts as the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Iraq War and the war in Afghanistan.

• However, after the Second World War, it became customary in almost all countries of the world to organize the Ministry of Defense. It is noteworthy that the USSR chose a new term back in 1934, when the People's Commissariat of Defense was formed instead of the former People's Commissariat for Military and Naval Affairs. The last country to drop the name "Ministry of War" was Peru in 1987.