United States Secretary of Defense

United States Secretary of Defense
Official seal
Incumbent:	Robert Gates
First:	James Forrestal
Formation:	September 17, 1947
Presidential Line of Succession:	Sixth

The United States Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) is the head of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The role was made in 1947. The current Secretary of Defense is Robert Gates. The Secretary of Defense is sixth in line to the United States presidential line of succession.

List of Secretaries of Defense

#	Picture	Name	Term of Office		President(s) served under
			Start	End
1		James Vincent Forrestal	September 17, 1947	March 28, 1949	Harry S. Truman
2		Louis Arthur Johnson	March 28, 1949	September 19, 1950	Harry S. Truman
3		General George Catlett Marshall, Jr.	September 21, 1950	September 12, 1951	Harry S. Truman
4		Robert Abercrombie Lovett	September 17, 1951	January 20, 1953	Harry S. Truman
5		Charles Erwin Wilson	January 20, 1953	December 7, 1996	Dwight D. Eisenhower
6		Neil Hosler McElroy	October 9, 1957	December 1, 1959	Dwight D. Eisenhower
7		Thomas Sovereign Gates	December 2, 1959	January 20, 1961	Dwight D. Eisenhower
8		Robert Strange McNamara	January 21, 1961	February 29, 1968	John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson
9		Clark McAdams Clifford	March 1, 1968	January 20, 1969	Lyndon B. Johnson
10		Melvin Robert Laird	January 22, 1969	January 29, 1973	Richard Nixon
11		Elliot Lee Richardson	January 30, 1973	May 24, 1973	Richard Nixon
12		James Rodney Schlesinger	July 2, 1973	November 19, 1975	Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford
13		Donald Henry Rumsfeld	November 20, 1975	January 20, 1977	Gerald Ford
14		Harold Brown	January 21, 1977	January 20, 1981	Jimmy Carter
15		Caspar Willard Weinberger	January 21, 1981	November 23, 1987	Ronald Reagan
16		Frank Charles Carlucci III	November 23, 1987	January 20, 1989	Ronald Reagan
17		Richard Bruce Cheney	March 21, 1989	January 20, 1993	George H. W. Bush
18		Leslie Aspin, Jr.	January 21, 1993	February 3, 1994	Bill Clinton
19		William James Perry	February 3, 1994	January 24, 1997	Bill Clinton
20		William Sebastian Cohen	January 24, 1997	January 20, 2001	Bill Clinton
21		Donald Henry Rumsfeld (again)	January 20, 2001	December 18, 2006	George W. Bush
22		Robert Michael Gates	December 18, 2006	Incumbent	George W. Bush, Barack Obama

Other websites

Wikimedia Commons has images, video, and/or sound related to:

United States Secretary of Defense

• "Top Civilian and Military Leaders". U.S. Department of Defense. http://www.defenselink.mil/osd/topleaders.aspx. Retrieved October 13, 2007.  – Includes the Secretary of Defense
• More information on each position and biographies of the current Deputy Secretary (DepSecDef) and Under Secretaries (USDs)