What was the Department of War and why was the name changed?

The name should not be changed back to the Department of War. The renaming of the U.S. Department of War to the Department of Defense in 1949 was a symbolic move intended to redefine the country’s military focus in the post-World War II, Cold War era. The change emphasized the military’s mission of deterrence and national security rather than aggression, reflecting the new geopolitical landscape and the need for a unified military force.
A History lesson
While the name change would revert back to an old title, Lee said it’s fundamentally different from the War Department of the 18th century.
“There was never a unified cabinet level defense secretary of war. There was a secretary of war, but that was the secretary of the Army,” Lee said. “The War Department did not run the nation’s wars. It ran the nation’s Army at war.”
The War Department was established in August 1789 after President George Washington signed it into law. He nominated his aid during the American Revolution as secretary of war under the Articles of Confederation, Henry Knox, to lead the new agency.
While the Department of Defense of today is made up of five branches — the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and most recently, the Space Force — they all have histories distinct from the original “War Department.”
The U.S. had used naval forces during the Revolutionary War against Britain, but after the conflict, America, which was just “a loose arrangement of sovereign states,” and did not collect enough taxes to sustain a national navy, according to U.S. Navy history. There were various lobbying efforts to stand up a formal navy, but they didn’t take hold until a staunch supporter, President John Adams, officially established the Department of the Navy in 1798.
The Marine Corps was first established in November 1775 by the Second Continental Congress and continued through the Revolutionary War until “the last of the Navy’s ships were sold, the Continental Navy and Marines went out of existence,” according to service history. After the war, the Marine Corps was formally re-established in July 1798.
The Air Force was later established in 1947 by President Harry Truman as a successor to the Army’s Air Corps which played a vital role during World War II.
World War II also prompted U.S. leaders to take a look at the entire military enterprise when it became an “obvious problem” that modern wars would require combined operations among the services, Lee said. Leaders at the time saw these problems during the war but thought it would be “too disruptive” to make sweeping restructuring decisions, he added.
“The Cold War is barely even getting started in ‘47, but they can see it,” Lee said. “There’s a recognition that the United States is going to continue to have forces deployed on a global level and in some way and that just is going to require a more unified command structure.”
In an effort to bring unity to the armed services, President Truman signed the National Security Act in July 1947. The law merged the Navy, War Departments (Army) and Air Force into the National Military Establishment and put a civilian defense secretary at the helm who also oversaw the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It also created the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the National Security Resources Board, according to a Pentagon history page.
We are not about WAR. We are about defense to preserve PEACE! What has happened today, is by defect, we have become a department of war, by invading nations all over the world like the ancient Romans did. This has resulted in a military industrial complex that ultimately will end in World War and the destruction of America (Israel).
Why the National Seal Changed as well:
Most people are unaware that the national seal has also changed, done so in 1947 as well. Why? The Presidential Seal, was changed where the now faces the olive branch to symbolize peace over war. The design was updated again in 1960 to add stars for Alaska and Hawaii, incorporating them into the circular design for a total of 50 stars.
General MacArthur summed it up when he said in his farewell address to Congress:
Efforts have been made to distort my position. It has been said, in effect, that I was a warmonger. Nothing could be further from the truth. I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes. Indeed, on the second day of September, nineteen hundred and forty-five, just following the surrender of the Japanese nation on the Battleship Missouri, I formally cautioned as follows:
Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start workable methods were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful. Military alliances, balances of power, Leagues of Nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past 2000 years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.
But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end.
War’s very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.
In war there is no substitute for victory.
America stands for PEACE, not war…..