#TBT: Harry S. Truman Creates The Air Force, NSC, Department of Defense, And CIA

     Republican Representative Joe Scarborough wrote a book profiling Democratic President Harry S. Truman. While James Monroe, the 5th president, was the first whose priority was national security, it would be Truman, the 33rd, who would lay the foundation for America's modern military and national security measures and institutions. 

 

     Aside from founding NATO and the United Nations, Truman, on July 26th, signed the National Security Act of 1947. This landmark law combined the Departments of the Army and the Navy into the current Department of Defense while also creating the Air Force, codifying the Marine Corps as an independent military branch, and creating the National Security Council and the CIA.

     The first Secretary of Defense was appointed on September 8th of that year, a major victory for Truman's military and foreign affairs agenda, which would define his legacy, as the conservative coalition dominating congress blocked the implementation of almost all of his domestic Fair Deal policy.