Washington explores renaming Pentagon to "War Department"

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has begun exploring ways to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources.

According to the report, in the first weeks following Trump’s return to the presidency, the Pentagon began working on “legislative proposals” to restore the department’s previous name and the title of its head.

A source noted that because such a change would require congressional approval, the White House is seeking alternative ways to implement it.

The structure of the military has evolved considerably since the Department of War was created in 1789, and so has the name for the bureaucracy overseeing it. Initially the Department of War oversaw the Army, while a separate Department of the Navy ran naval forces and the Marines.

After World War II in an effort to increase efficiency, President Harry S. Truman put the armed forces under one organization, initially called the National Military Establishment under a bill passed by Congress in 1947. The legislation merged the Navy and War Departments and the newly independent Air Force into a single organization led by a civilian secretary of defense.

By Khagan Isayev