What’s in a name? Military victories, according to the Trump administration.
The Department of Defense is reverting to its old name – the Department of War – per the president’s latest executive order. The department previously held the title from 1789 until 1947, and accrued many military successes over that period, most notably in World War I and World War II.
“Our nation won some of its greatest military victories under the direction of a secretary of war operating within a Department of War,” said White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf.
The order reinstates that name.
“This is something we’ve thought long and hard about. We’ve been talking about it for months,” the president said. “I think it’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.”
President Donald Trump and his administration have taken up the mantle of “peace through strength,” a phrase President Ronald Reagan repeatedly used to describe his administration’s approach to defense policy. Trump believes the department’s resurrected name projects a strong and capable military more than the “Department of Defense.” And it’s not the only rhetorical change Trump has brought to the department.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has often referred to the “warrior ethos” and to soldiers as “war fighters,” intending to denote a departure from a “woke” military and a return to “lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.”
“This country won every major war after” the naming of the war department in 1789, “to include World War I and World War II. Total victory,” Hegseth said Friday. “Then 150 years after that, we changed the name… We haven’t won a major war since.”
The second half of the 20th century for the U.S. was marked by protracted wars that had no clear, decisive victory, like the Korean and Vietnam wars. That seemed to spill over into the 21st century with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This name change is not just about renaming. It’s about restoring. Words matter,” Hegseth said.
