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And, besides highlighting the president鈥檚 branding proclivities, the issue exposes tensions between Trump鈥檚 and many of his predecessors鈥� platitudes about peace even as the U.S. has spent much of its existence on battlefields.

鈥淢ilitary tasks are directed not toward war鈥攏ot toward conquest鈥攂ut toward peace,鈥� President Harry Truman insisted in 1947, when Congress first jettisoned the 鈥淲ar Department鈥� label.

Here is a look at the history of the U.S. military鈥檚 Cabinet structure and names.

Colonial military branches were the 鈥榃ar Department鈥� foundation

The Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, as hostilities built against the British. The Navy and Marine Corps quickly followed. After the Constitution’s ratification, Congress established a single Cabinet agency called the War Department in 1789, led by a secretary of war. The Navy broke away in 1798, separating the War Department and Navy Department.

Secretaries of war were top presidential advisers from the War of 1812 through World Wars I and II. Some Navy secretaries also wielded strong influence.

World wars force changes

U.S. politics leaned toward isolationism before World War I. Isolationist attitudes returned after fighting ended in 1918. During the Great Depression, the government鈥檚 ample spending centered on domestic jobs and aid programs of the .

Yet the U.S. military footprint grew quietly. As war in Europe intensified before American involvement in World War II, Congress authorized construction of the Pentagon in 1941. Ground broke on Sept. 11. Japan bombed months later, prompting the U.S. to join the war.

Henry Stimson served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s war secretary after having been secretary of state under Herbert Hoover. Stimson spent endless hours with FDR in a makeshift White House war room and presided over the secret Manhattan Project to develop atomic bombs.

Stimson’s status as both a State and War Department chief previewed the sometimes blurred lines between the top diplomatic and military agencies and their roles in U.S. foreign policy across many administrations since World War II.

20th century conflicts changed global politics

Roosevelt鈥檚 top military advisers mulled Pentagon reorganization during the war but FDR died before fighting concluded. Truman, who had virtually no part in war planning or execution as vice president, asked Congress after the war ended to create a 鈥淒epartment of National Defense鈥� and bring military operations under one Cabinet officer.

Congress debated for two years before passing the 1947 National Security Act. The sweeping law created a single Pentagon department called 鈥渢he National Military Establishment.鈥� It also created the National Security Council to advise the president and established the Central Intelligence Agency. The new name 鈥� NME 鈥� unintentionally read as 鈥淓nemy,鈥� prompting Congress in 1949 to rename 鈥渢he Department of Defense.鈥�

Congress has occasionally modified and built on the act, but it still underpins the nation’s military and intelligence structure.

Post-war rhetoric shifted to an emphasis on 鈥榩eace鈥�

The overhaul played out as the U.S. and its allies worked to establish and the , the latter inspired by the League of Nations that failed after World War I. The post-war organizations were framed as ways to prevent future conflicts.

Truman was the president who authorized dropping two atomic in August 1945. Explaining his post-war approach in 1947, he noted the U.S. had ratcheted down its wartime mobilization. He promised that a robust, war-ready military would remain. He nodded to NATO and the U.N., saying the U.S. would 鈥渟upport a lasting peace, by force if necessary.鈥� But he argued that even for the military, the priority was to avoid fighting.

鈥淲e seek to use our military strength solely to preserve the peace of the world,鈥� Truman declared on Navy Day. 鈥淭hat is the basis of the foreign policy of the people of the United States.鈥�

It was the original 鈥減eace through strength鈥� argument that U.S. administrations 鈥� Republican and Democratic 鈥� carried through the Cold War nuclear buildup and that Trump himself has used as a presidential candidate and commander in chief.

Within years of Truman’s speech, the U.S. was at war in Korea, then Vietnam. A brief war in Iraq followed in 1991. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. invaded Iraq and began an Afghanistan military occupation that became the longest war in American history.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance have assailed military engagements abroad as wasteful, though Trump has, in his second presidency, , backed shipments of and approved a .

The 鈥淒epartment of War,鈥� he says, 鈥渏ust sounded better.鈥�