The Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 Pub.L. 99-433 reworked the command structure of the United States military. Public law is a theory of law governing the relationship between Individuals ( Citizens companies) and the State. The United States Armed Forces are the overall unified military forces of the United States It increased the powers of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
It made the most sweeping changes to the United States Department of Defense since the department was established in the National Security Act of 1947. The United States Department of Defense ( DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government The National Security Act of 1947, Pub L No 235 80 Cong 61 Stat
Named after Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) and Representative William Flynt "Bill" Nichols (D-Alabama), the bill passed the House of Representatives, 383-27, and the Senate, 95-0. The State of Arizona ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. William Flynt "Bill" Nichols ( October 16, 1918 - December 13, 1988) was a Democratic member of United States House The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. Alabama (formally the State of Alabama;) is a State located in the southern region of the United States of America. The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives It was signed into law by President Reagan on October 1, 1986. Events 331 BC - Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela. Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar)
Among other changes, Goldwater-Nichols streamlined the military chain of command, which now runs from the President through the Secretary of Defense directly to unified combat commanders, bypassing the service chiefs who were assigned an advisory role. In a Military context the chain of command is the line of authority and responsibility along which orders are passed within a Military unit and between different The United States Secretary of Defense ( SECDEF) is the head of the U
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History
The Goldwater-Nichols Act was an attempt to fix problems caused by inter-service rivalry, which had emerged during the Vietnam War, contributed to the catastrophic failure of the Iranian hostage rescue mission in 1980, and which were still evident in the invasion of Grenada in 1983 [1] [2]. Interservice rivalry is a Military term referring to rivalries that can arise between different branches of a country's Armed forces, such as between a nation's The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia Operation Eagle Claw (or Operation Evening Light) was a United States military operation to rescue the 53 hostages from the U Grenada (grɪˈneɪdə is an Island nation that includes the southern Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea.
Such problems existed as well in World War II, during which two independent lines of command flowed from the President, one through the Secretary of the Navy to naval forces, and the other through the Secretary of War to land and air forces. The United States Secretary of the Navy ( SECNAV) is the Civilian head of the Department of the Navy. The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington 's administration In 1947, the military restructuring placed all military forces, including the newly independent Air Force, under a single civilian Secretary of Defense.
However, the United States military was still organized along lines of command that reported to their respective service chiefs (Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Air Force, and Chief of Naval Operations). The Commandant of the Marine Corps ( CMC) is the highest ranking officer in the United States Marine Corps and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff The Chief of Staff of the United States Army ( CSA) is the highest ranking officer in the United States Army and is member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff The Chief of Staff of the Air Force ( CSAF) is the senior uniformed officer in United States Air Force and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Organization of the CNO's Office The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations includes the Chief of Naval Operations the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, the Deputy Chiefs These chiefs in turn made up the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Joint Chiefs of Staff ( JCS) is a group comprising the Chiefs of service of each major branch of the Armed services in the United States armed forces The Joint Chiefs of Staff elected a Chairman to communicate with the civilian government. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in turn reported to the Secretary of Defense, the civilian head of the military. The United States Secretary of Defense ( SECDEF) is the head of the U Both the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense reported to the President of the United States, who holds the position of commander-in-chief of all U. S. armed forces.
This system led to counter-productive inter-service rivalry. Peacetime activities (such as procurement and creation of doctrine, etc. Military Science is the process of translating National defence policy to produce Military capability by employing Military scientists including ) were tailored for each service in isolation. Just as seriously, wartime activities of each service were planned, executed, and evaluated independently. These practices resulted in division of effort, the inability to profit from economies of scale, and inhibited the development of modern warfare doctrine.
The formulation of the AirLand Battle doctrine in the late 1970s and early 1980s laid bare the difficulty of coordinating efforts among various service branches. AirLand Battle was first adopted by the US Army in 1982 as Field Manual 100-5 and drove Military doctrine until the late 1990s This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. AirLand Battle attempted to synthesize all of the capabilities of the service arms of the military into a single doctrine. The system envisioned ground, naval, air, and space based systems acting in concert to attack and defeat an opponent in depth. The structure of the armed forces effectively blocked realization of this ideal. The US invasion of Grenada in 1983 further exposed the problems with the military command structure. The Invasion of Grenada, codenamed Operation Urgent Fury, was an Invasion of the nation of Grenada, an island in the Caribbean Sea 100 miles north Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) Although the United States forces easily prevailed, its leaders expressed major concerns over both the inability of the different service branches to coordinate and communicate with each other, and the consequences of a lack of coordination if faced with a more threatening foe.
Effects
Under the Goldwater-Nichols Act, military advice was centralized in the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs as opposed to the service chiefs. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( CJCS) is by law the highest ranking military officer overall in the United States Armed The Chairman was designated as the principal military advisor to the President of the United States, National Security Council and Secretary of Defense. The President of the United States is the Head of state and Head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in United States by The White House National Security Council ( NSC) in the United States is the principal forum used by the President for considering National The United States Secretary of Defense ( SECDEF) is the head of the U The act also established the position of Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and simplified the chain of command. The Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( VJCS) is by law the second highest ranking military officer overall in the United States Armed Forces ranking It increased the ability of the Chairman to direct overall strategy, but provided greater command authority to "unified" and "specified" field commanders. The Chairman may not exercise military command over the Joint Chiefs of Staff or any of the armed forces. (section 152c of the Act)
Goldwater-Nichols changed the way the services interact. The services themselves "organize, train and equip" forces for use by the combatant commanders (CCDRs), and the service chiefs no longer exercise any operational control over their forces. Combatant commander (CCDR is the title of a major military leader of United States armed forces either of a large geographical region or of a particular military function Rather than reporting to a service chief operationally, the service component forces support the CCDR responsible for a specific function (Transportation, Space, Special Operations), or a geographic region of the globe (Europe, Middle East, etc. ). The CCDR then fielded a force capable of employing AirLand Battle doctrine (or its successors) using all assets available to the military. The restructuring afforded a combination of effort, integrated planning, shared procurement, and a reduction or elimination in inter-service rivalry between commanders. It also provided unity of command, comporting with Military Science. Military Science is the process of translating National defence policy to produce Military capability by employing Military scientists including Individual services changed from war fighting entities into organizational and training units, responsible for readiness. Thus CENTCOM (Central Command) for example, would be assigned air, ground, and naval assets in order to achieve its objective, not the inefficient method of individual services planning, supporting, and fighting the same war. The United States Central Command ( USCENTCOM) is a theater -level Unified Combatant Command unit of the U
Shared procurement allowed the various branches to share technological advances such as stealth and smart weapons quickly and provided other ancillary benefits (such as the interoperability of radios between services, heretofore unknown in the military). Stealth technology also known as LOT (Low Observability Technology is a sub-discipline of military Electronic countermeasures which covers a range of techniques used with Joint implementation of new technology allowed for joint development of supporting doctrine. Therefore, the Goldwater-Nichols Act could be seen as the initial step of the currently ongoing Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) with its concept of Network Centric Warfare (NCW). Network-centric warfare (NCW, now commonly called network-centric operations (NCO, is a new Military doctrine or theory of war pioneered by the United States Without the restructuring, i. e. integration of the three branches and improvement of underlying processes, NCW would not be thinkable. Conceptually it was tailored to Cold-War symmetric threats.
The first successful test of Goldwater-Nichols was the 1991 Gulf War ("Operation Desert Storm"), where it functioned exactly as planned, allowing the U. S. commander, Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, to exercise full control over Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and Navy assets without having to negotiate with the individual services. General H Norman Schwarzkopf (also known as '''"Stormin' Norman"''' and '''"The Bear"''') (b The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities.
Changes since 1986
On October 29, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered that the functional and regional commanders be referred to not as "CINCs" but as "combatant commanders" when applied to "unified" regional organizations (e. Events 437 - Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9 1932 is a United States Businessman, Politician, the 13th Secretary of Defense under President g. , USCENTCOM), or "commander" when talking about "specified" units such as the U. S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM is one of the ten Unified Combatant Commands of the U Rumsfeld said the term "CINC" was inappropriate, because under the U.S. Constitution, the President is the military's only commander-in-chief. The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme Law of the United States. A commander-in-chief is the Commander of a nation's Military forces or significant element of those forces His decision was intended to clarify the military's subordination to civilian government.
Bibliography
- Bourne, Chistopher. "Unintended Consequences. of the Goldwater-Nichols Act. " JFQ (Spring 1998) 99-108. online version argues it gives too much power to the Chairman
- Gordon Nathaniel Lederman; Reorganizing the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 Greenwood Press, 1999 online
- James R. Locher; Victory on the Potomac: The Goldwater-Nichols Act Unifies the Pentagon. Texas A & M University Press, 2002. 524 pp. ISBN 1-58544-187-2