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Encyclopedia entry: National Security Act
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to American Military History
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Companion to American Military History 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information)
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National Security Act
(1947).The conditions leading to the entry of the United States into World War II in 1941 revealed a number of deficiencies in how its national security apparatus was organized. There were inadequacies in civil‐military policy coordination, in interservice coordination, and in intelligence. During the latter part of the war, debate arose over the possibility of merging the U.S. Army (and its subordinate air force) and the U.S. Navy into a single department. The army largely favored the concept; the air force saw it as the means to its independence; the navy was opposed.
It became apparent to Navy Secretary James V.
Forrestal
in 1945 that, given congressional ...