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October 2024
October 8, 2024--On Tuesday, 8 October 2024 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office and the U.S. Army Center of Military History will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Mark Folse, Dr. John Mortimer, Dr. Laurence Nelson III, and Dr. Christopher Davis. They will be speaking on "Enduring Freedom to Freedom's Sentinel: Writing the U.S. Army's Official Histories of Joint Campaigns in Afghanistan."
September 2024
September 26, 2024--On Thursday 26 September 2024 at 1200 in room B5 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Professor Aaron Bateman. He will be speaking on "U.S. Military Space Strategy During the Cold War."
Professor Bateman is an assistant professor of history and international affairs. Trained as a historian of science and technology, his interests lie at the nexus of science, technology, and international security. Specifically, Aaron’s research investigates how science and technology shaped U.S. foreign policy, nuclear strategy, alliance dynamics, intelligence, and arms control during the Cold War. His scholarship explores these themes in the context of two distinct research areas. The first focuses on the history of national security activities in space during the Cold War. The second investigates how the exigencies of the nuclear age shaped U.S. global information networks.
His first book, Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative, is an international history of Ronald Reagan’s controversial Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), more popularly known as “Star Wars.” Using recently declassified documents, he situates SDI within intensifying U.S. - Soviet military space competition in the final two decades of the Cold War that emerged as détente collapsed. He also details SDI’s enduring consequences for arms control and its connections with resurgent anxieties about an arms race in space.
Professor Bateman's second book project uses an infrastructural lens to explore how the nuclear age shaped U.S. global information networks that served as the ‘connective tissue’ of American power. He details both the technological and political challenges associated with developing and maintaining information networks stretching from under the ocean and into outer space. This project also investigates the politics of basing U.S. information hardware, such as satellite ground stations, in the Global South to reveal how decolonization shaped this infrastructure. This work is rooted in the historiographies of technology, diplomacy, and decolonization and engages with the security studies scholarship in political science.
Professor Bateman received his PhD in history of science from Johns Hopkins University. While in graduate school he held a Guggenheim predoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He has completed multiple intensive Russian-language courses in the United States and the Russian Federation. Prior to his doctoral studies, Aaron served as a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer.
September 16, 2024--On Monday, 16 September 2024 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Shane Makowicki, Dr. Nicholas J. Schlosser, Dr. Kate Tietzen-Wisdom, and Dr. Mason Watson from the U.S. Army Center of Military History. They will be speaking on "From Iraqi Freedom to Inherent Resolve: Writing the U.S. Army's Official Histories of the Wars in Iraq, 2003-Present."
July 2024
July 18, 2024--On Thursday, 18 July 2024 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Kevin Benson. He will be speaking on "Reflections on the Opening of the War in Iraq."
Colonel Kevin Benson served for three decades in the United States Army. He was the Director of Plans for Third U.S. Army and the Combined Forces Land Component Command at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, from July 2002 to July 2003. He previously commanded the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, at Fort Hood, Texas, between 1998 and 2000. After leaving Iraq, he taught at the Red Team School and became Director of the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In October 2010, he returned to Baghdad to help plan the successful conclusion of U.S. operations in Iraq. In recent years, he has supported war games and participated in seminars on military thought and planning. Among his decorations, Kevin earned the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star.
Kevin graduated from West Point in 1977 and completed the U.S. Army Armor Officer Basic Course. He continued his military education at the U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the School of Advanced Military Studies. He earned a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Kansas in 2010, and served as an Adjunct Scholar at West Point’s Modern War Institute in 2020.
Kevin has written for many publications including Parameters, Military Review, Army Magazine, Time, Politico, Infantry Journal, Strategy Bridge, Modern War Institute, and War on the Rocks. Today’s talk is based on his book, Expectation of Valor, about his experiences as the Third Army J5 at the opening of the Iraq War. It was released today, July 18, 2024, through Casemate Publishing.
April 2024
April 26, 2024--On Friday, 26 April 2024 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Col. Jim Davitch, PhD, USAF. He will be speaking on "A Shield in the Sky: The Evolution of North American Air Defense."
Colonel Jim Davitch is Deputy Executive Secretary of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. An intelligence officer in the United States Air Force for over two decades, Col Davitch supported Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, Resolute Support, and Inherent Resolve. Over the course of his military career, he has won the Meritorious Service Medal with five oak leaf clusters, along with nine other awards and decorations. Col Davitch has also been an educator, teaching at the U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Air Force Weapons School. Col Davitch contributed a chapter to the Air Force Academy’s main warfighting textbook and has written articles for the journals Joint Force Quarterly, Air & Space Power Journal, Over the Horizons, Strategy Bridge, Angry Staff Officer, and Air & Space Operations Review. His research interests cover air defense integration, metacognition, and the role of defense intelligence in national security strategy. He earned a BA in International Politics at Penn State University, an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Oklahoma, an MS in Air Power Strategy and Technology Integration at Air University, and a PhD in Governance and Globalization at Virginia Tech University. In completion of his PhD at Virginia Tech last year, Col Davitch wrote a dissertation titled, "A Shield in the Sky: The Vertical Geopolitics of Transcontinental Air Defense," on which today’s talk is based.
April 2, 2024--On Tuesday, 2 April 2024 at 1200 in room M1 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Edward Keefer. He will be speaking on "Caspar Weinberger and the U.S. Military Buildup."
Few have had such storied careers in diplomatic history as Dr. Edward Keefer, who has served as a federal historian for over 50 years. Dr. Keefer has worked tirelessly to document the history of foreign relations and national security policy. Along the way, he has mentored generations of historians and imparted to them his passion for historical work in the public interest.
Dr. Keefer retired as General Editor of the Department of State’s documentary series Foreign relations of the United States. In 2009, he joined the Historical office of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. During his 34 years at the State Department, he edited or co-edited 25 FRUS volumes and served as general Editor for over 50 volumes. His volume on Indonesia from 1964-1968 was translated into the bahasa Indonesian language and became an academic best seller there.
Working on FRUS and the Secretaries of Defense Historical Series has given him the opportunity to do research at every Presidential Library from Harry Truman through George H.W. Bush. One of the novel challenges he faced was integrating the Johnson and Nixon tapes into the FRUS series—Henry Kissinger complained to him personally about including Oval Office “chit chat” in FRUS.
Dr. Keefer was part of a team that negotiated an official process for acknowledging and documenting covert operations in the FRUS series with the CIA and the National Security Council staff. He served as supervisory editor for the United States on a joint U.S.-Russian Foreign Relations volume on the backchannel communications during 1969-1972 between Henry Kissinger and Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.
At the Defense Department, Dr. Keefer has written two volumes in the Secretaries of Defense Historical Series—Harold Brown: Offsetting the Soviet Military Challenge, 1977-1981 and Caspar Weinberger and the U.S. Military Buildup, 1981-1985. He is currently at work on a third volume focused on the tenure of Richard Cheney as Secretary of Defense.
December 2023
December 13, 2023--On Wednesday, 13 December 2023 at 1200 in room M2 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Warren Bass. He will be speaking on "Inside the 9/11 Commission: Writing a History of an American Tragedy."
Dr. Warren Bass is the Director of Speechwriting and Senior Adviser to the Secretary of Defense. An expert on the modern Middle East, terrorism, and U.S. foreign policy, Dr. Bass has pursued an accomplished career as a scholar, public servant, and journalist. He earned a Ph.D. in History at Columbia University, an M.Sc. in Journalism at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, and his B.A. (Hon.) from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He previously served at the State Department as Director of Speechwriting and Middle East Policy Adviser to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice between 2009 and 2011 and as professional staff member of the 9/11 Commission between 2003 and 2004. While with the 9/11 Commission, he was the lead investigator into National Security Council issues and one of the many writers and editors of the commission’s landmark final report, a New York Times bestseller and finalist for the National Book Award. Outside of government, Dr. Bass has been executive editor at Penguin Press, senior editor at The Wall Street Journal, associate editor at Foreign Affairs, editor at The Washington Post, senior fellow at the RAND Corporation, and director of the post-9/11 counterterrorism program at the Council on Foreign Relations. He authored the 2003 Oxford University Press book Support Any Friend: Kennedy’s Middle East and the Making of the U.S.-Israel Alliance and has written articles for such publications as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Haaretz, Foreign Policy, Columbia Journalism Review, New Republic, and Slate.
November 2023
November 2, 2023--On Thursday, 2 November 2023 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Melvyn Leffler. He will be speaking on "Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq."
Melvyn P. Leffler is the Edward Stettinius Professor of History, Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He is an award-winning author and eminent historian of U.S. foreign policy whose books include: Safeguarding Democratic Capitalism (2017); For the Soul of Mankind (2007), which won the American Historical Association’s George Louis Beer Prize for best book in European international history; and A Preponderance of Power (1992), the winner of the Bancroft, Hoover, and Robert H. Ferrell Prizes. In an illustrious career spanning five decades, Dr. Leffler has also co-edited The Cambridge History of the Cold War (2010); written articles for Diplomatic History, Foreign Affairs, and The Atlantic; held visiting professorships at the University of Oxford, Cambridge University, and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna; worked on advisory committees to the State Department and CIA; and served as president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. Furthermore, he has held distinguished fellowships with such organizations as the Woodrow Wilson International Center, the Library of Congress, and the Norwegian Nobel Peace Institute; and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the UVA Thomas Jefferson Award for excellence in scholarship in 2014 and the 2012 Graebner Prize for career achievement and contributions from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.
October 2023
October 17, 2023--On Tuesday, 17 October 2023 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Larry Ferreiro. He will be speaking on "Churchill's American Arsenal: The Partnership Behind the Innovation that Won World War II."
Larrie D. Ferreiro is the Director of Research at Defense Acquisition University and Adjunct Professor of History and Engineering at George Mason University. He is an award-winning author whose books include: Churchill's American Arsenal (2022); Bridging the Seas (2020); Brothers at Arms (2016), the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2017 and the winner of the 2016 Journal of the American Revolution Book of the Year; Measure of the Earth (2011), which made the Physics World Top 10 books of 2011 list; and Ships and Science (2007). Ferreiro has also written articles for The Daily Beast and The Atlantic and worked as a historical consultant on Walt Disney, BBC, History Channel, and Discovery Channel projects. A naval architect and engineer as well as a historian, he has served for over four decades in the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Defense, and (in an exchange capacity) the French Navy.
August 2023
August 25, 2023--On Friday, 25 August 2023 at 1200 in room B2 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Robert Watson. He will be speaking on "America's First Plague: The Deadly 1793 Epidemic That Crippled a Young Nation."
Robert Watson is Distinguished Professor of American History and the Avron Fogelman Research Professor at Lynn University. He is an award-winning author whose books include: Affairs of State (2012); America's First Crisis (2014), winner of the Independent Publisher's Gold Medal in History; The Presidents' Wives (2014); The Nazi Titanic (2016); The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn (2017), subject of a National Geographic TV special and winner of the John Barry and John Lyman Book Awards; Escape!: The Story of the Confederacy’s Infamous Libby Prison and the Civil War’s Largest Jail Break (2021); and America’s First Plague: the Deadly 1793 Plague That Crippled a Young Nation. Watson has been interviewed by several news outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, and the BBC, and has appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and C-SPAN's American History TV and The Washington Journal. Watson also served as the editor of the scholarly journal White House Studies, the assistant editor and book review editor of The Social Science Journal, and the "Presidency Series" editor for the State University of New York Press.
June 2023
June 9, 2023--On Friday, 9 June 2023 at 1000 in room B2 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Craig Nelson on "V is for Victory: Franklin Roosevelt's American Revolution and the Triumph of World War II."
Craig Nelson is the author of Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness and the New York Times bestseller, Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon, as well as several previous books, including The Age of Radiance (a PEN Award Finalist chosen as one of the year’s best books by NBC News, the American Institute of Physics, Kirkus Reviews, and FlavorWire), The First Heroes, Thomas Paine (winner of the Henry Adams Prize), and Let’s Get Lost (shortlisted for W.H. Smith’s Book of the Year). His writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, National Geographic, The New England Review, Popular Science, Reader’s Digest, and a host of other publications.
April 2023
April 19, 2023--On Wednesday, 19 April 2023 at 1330 in the Pentagon Auditorium, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Anand Toprani and Rear Adm. Dave Oliver (USN, Ret.). They will be speaking about "American Defense Reform: Lessons from Failure and Success in Navy History."
Anand Toprani is a graduate of Cornell, Oxford and Georgetown. He has served with the CENTCOM J2 and is currently Associate Professor of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College. He is the author of Oil and the Great Powers: Britain and Germany, 1914-1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019).
The Honorable and Rear Admiral Dave Oliver, USN (Ret.) served aboard submarines for sixteen years operating from seven U.S. ports. After four years in command of a submarine, Dave relocated to Yokosuka, Japan, directing the operations of all U.S. and Allied attack submarines in the Pacific against the Soviet Union. He then served in roles as an admiral and was Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Research, and Logistics under Presidents Clinton and Bush. Dave had six tours in various roles in the Pentagon. In civilian life, Dave was also the Chief Operating Officer of much of Airbus’s United States organization.
November 2022
November 29, 2022--On Tuesday, 29 November 2022 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series panel on its latest publication, “Reform and Experimentation after the Cold War, 1989-2001,” Volume V in the series History of Acquisition in the Department of Defense. This panel will interest defense professionals who follow the history of major weapon system acquisition and defense reform. The panel will feature defense acquisition history authors Dr. Philip Shiman, Dr. Elliott Converse III, and Dr. Joseph Arena.
Philip L. Shiman, a consultant and contractor in military history, holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a doctorate in history from Duke University. He is coauthor of "Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence,1983–1993" (2002) and author of "Forging the Sword: Defense Production during the Cold War" (1997). He has served as a senior analyst in Navy and Marine Corps history and technology for Anteon Corporation’s Center for Security Strategy and Operations and has collaborated with National Park Service historians to develop a new approach to Civil War battlefield analysis. He has also worked for the Army Staff at the Pentagon and conducted history-based training at the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College.
Elliott V. Converse III, a retired Air Force colonel with a doctorate in history from Princeton University, is the author of "Rearming for the Cold War, 1945–1960" (2012), the first volume in the defense acquisition history series. He has authored, coauthored, or edited other books on military history, including "The Exclusion of Black Soldiers from the Medal of Honor in World War II" (coauthor, 1997). While in the Air Force, he served as an intelligence officer in Thailand during the Vietnam War, a faculty member at the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Air War College, a strategic planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and commander of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
Joseph A. Arena is the Senior Historian, Leadership Support, for the Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense. He received master’s and doctoral degrees in history from The Ohio State University and a bachelor’s degree with majors in history and political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is writing a history of cybersecurity policy in the Department of Defense.
November 1, 2022--The OSD Historical Office is pleased to announce the publication of Reform and Experimentation After the Cold War, 1989–2001, volume V in the History of Acquisition in the Department of Defense series. This volume focuses on the adoption in the 1990s of new concepts and methods for acquiring major weapon systems.
For more information, and to read the volume, visit our Acquisition History page under “Publications,” https://history.defense.gov/Publications/Acquisition-History/. Hard copies are available for purchase from the Government Printing Office (GPO).
February 2020
February 18, 2020--The OSD Historical Office has posted the 2019 update to its "Foreign Travels of the Secretaries of Defense" database (https://history.defense.gov/DOD-History/Secretary-of-Defense-Travels/). The update contains unclassified information on 31 visits to foreign countries made during 2019 by Patrick M. Shanahan (Acting Secretary of Defense from 1 January to 23 June) and Mark T. Esper (Secretary of Defense since 23 July 2019). It brings the total number of foreign visits by secretaries of defense chronicled in the database (1948-2019) to 1,377.
Data for the 2019 update to "Foreign Travels of the Secretaries of Defense" were drawn from unclassified sources, primarily public statements and readouts published by the OSD Public Affairs office on www.defense.gov. The update has been cleared for public release by the Defense Office of Pre-Publication Security Review (DOPSR), and is purely historical in nature. It contains no entries for current-year travels or planned travels by the secretary of defense.
February 28, 2020--On Friday, 28 February 2020 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Hope Harrison. She will be speaking on "The Berlin Wall and the New Germany, 1989 to the Present."
Dr. Hope Harrison is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs at The George Washington University. She is the author of After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Her previous work includes the prize-winning Driving the Soviets up the Wall (Princeton University Press, 2003), which was also published to wide acclaim in German translation (Ulbrichts Mauer, Propyläen, 2011).
Dr. Harrison received her B.A. in Social Studies from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University. Dr. Harrison is the recipient of fellowships from Fulbright, the Nobel Institute, the American Academy in Berlin, Harvard, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Dr. Harrison has served on the staff of the National Security Council as Director for European and Eurasian Affairs, (2000-2001), directed the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs (2005-2009), and currently serves on the board of four Berlin-based institutions: the Berlin Wall Association; the Allied Museum; the Black Box Cold War Exhibit at Checkpoint Charlie; and the Foundation for German-American Scientific Relations. She has appeared on CNN, the History Channel, the Science Channel, C-SPAN, the BBC, Deutschlandradio, ZDF, and Spiegel-TV.
November 2019
November 13, 2019--On Wednesday, 13 November 2019 at 1200 in room B3 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. David Fields. He will be speaking on "How Korea was Divided and Why It Still Matters: The Pre-1945 Origins of the Division of Korea that Continues to Haunt US-ROK Relations Today."
Dr. Fields earned his Ph.D. in history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017. During the 2016-2017 academic year he was a Fulbright Scholar at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. He is the author of Foreign Friends: Syngman Rhee, American Exceptionalism, and the Division of Korea (University Press of Kentucky, 2019). He is the editor of The Diary of Syngman Rhee, published by the Museum of Contemporary Korean History, and the book review editor of the Journal of American-East Asian Relations. He has been published in the Washington Post, North Korea Review, Journal of American-East Asian Relations, SinoNK.com, Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society-Korea Branch and in the Working Papers Series of the Cold War International History Project.
October 2019
October 28, 2019--On Monday, 28 October 2019 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Robert Watson. He will be speaking on "The Sinking of the SS Cap Arcona and the Last Holocaust Victims of World War II."
Robert Watson is an award-winning author whose books include: Affairs of State (2012); America’s First Crisis (2014), winner of the Independent Publisher’s Gold Medal in History; The Presidents’ Wives (2014), released in an expanded 2nd edition; The Nazi Titanic (2016), which is being made into a motion picture; The Ghost Ship of Brooklyn (2017), subject of a National Geographic TV special and winner of the John Barry and John Lyman Book Awards. Watson has been interviewed by several news outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, and the BBC, and has appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and C-SPAN’s American History TV and The Washington Journal. Watson also served as the editor of the scholarly journal "White House Studies," the assistant editor and book review editor of "The Social Science Journal," and the “Presidency Series” editor for the State University of New York Press.
September 2019
September 25, 2019--On Wednesday, 25 September 2019 at 1200 in the Pentagon Auditorium, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Roger Launius. He will be speaking on "The Space Race and the Legacy of Apollo."
Roger D. Launius is a historian with the OSD Historical Office. He is the former Associate Director for Collections and Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. He has also been a Senior Curator and Division Chair in Space History at the National Air and Space Museum. Between 1990 and 2002 he served as Chief Historian of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He is the author of several books on the history of spaceflight and space policy.
July 2019
July 26, 2019--On Friday, 26 July 2019 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. John Gans. He will be speaking on "White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War."
Dr. Gans is the Director of Communications and Research at Perry World House, the University of Pennsylvania's global policy institute, and a Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. Prior to becoming the Director of Communications and Research in November 2018, Gans was the Global Order Program Manager from November 2017 to November 2018. Prior to this, he was the chief speechwriter to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. He served as the principal adviser to Secretary Carter on planning, positioning, and preparation of remarks; managed a team of writers; and drafted dozens of speeches delivered around the world. In addition to leading the writing team at the Defense Department, Gans served as senior speechwriter for Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew.
Gans is the author of White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War (2019). He earned his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, where he also taught for several years.
June 2019
June 25, 2019--The OSD Historical Office is pleased to launch "Foreign Travels of the Secretaries of Defense, 1948–2018" (https://history.defense.gov/DOD-History/Secretary-of-Defense-Travels/), a searchable database chronicling more than 1,300 individual visits by secretaries of defense to foreign countries. Designed as a user-friendly reference tool for defense professionals, historical researchers, and the public at large, this database emphasizes the growing role of the secretary of defense in U.S. foreign relations. Users can query the data by an individual secretary's name, presidential administration, individual country visited, region, and continent—or by combinations of these variables. Selected data are visualized on an interactive map showing travels at a glance. Users may create and download subsets of the data or export PDFs of their results. A comparison chart breaks down travels by secretary and can also be filtered by country, continent, or region.
All data are drawn from unclassified sources, primarily the published volumes in the "Public Statements of the Secretaries of Defense" series and, from 2009 forward, from public statements and readouts released by the OSD Public Affairs office on www.defense.gov. The data set, which has been cleared for public release by the Defense Office of Pre-Publication Security Review (DOPSR), is purely historical in nature. It contains no entries for recent or planned secretary of defense travels, and will be updated annually.
The data and visualizations are available on the OSD Historical Office's main website (http://history.defense.gov). From the main page, hover over "DoD History" and choose "Secretary of Defense Travels" from the drop down menu, or follow this link.
June 20, 2019--On Thursday, 20 June 2019 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. David Kieran. He will be speaking on "Signature Wounds: The Untold Story of the Military's Mental Health Crisis."
Dr. Kieran is Assistant Professor of History and Director of the American Studies Concentration at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA. He is the author of Signature Wounds: The Untold Story of the Military's Mental Health Crisis (NYU, 2019) and Forever Vietnam: How a Divisive War Changed American Public Memory (Massachusetts, 2014). He is also the co-editor of At War: The Military and American Culture in the Twentieth Century and Beyond and the editor of The War of My Generation: Youth Culture and the War on Terror. He earned his doctorate in American Studies at the George Washington University.
May 2019
May 20, 2019--On Monday, 20 May 2019 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Sean McFate. He will be speaking on "The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder."
Dr. McFate is a senior fellow at the Adams Council and a professor of strategy at the National Defense University and Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He recently published The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder (2019). He also authored The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order (2014). He co-authored fictional works with Bret Witter, Shadow War (2016) and Deep Black (2017). A former paratrooper and officer in the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, McFate holds a BA from Brown University, an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
April 2019
April 9, 2019--The position of Deputy Secretary of Defense turns 70 years old this year. We invite you to view our pictorial collage of Deputy Secretaries of Defense from 1949 to 2019 on our Flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/osdhistory/albums.
We have also added an album of Pentagon construction photos, https://www.flickr.com/photos/osdhistory/albums/72157706430244371. .
April 9, 2019--On Tuesday, 9 April 2019 at 1200 in room M1 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Jennifer Miller. She will be speaking on "Rearming Japan: Cold War Visions of Democracy and Military Power."
Dr. Miller is Assistant Professor of History at Dartmouth College. She is a specialist in U.S. foreign relations since 1945. with a focus on interactions between the United States and Northeast Asia, and her research examines the intersections between foreign policy and domestic ideas, ideologies, and political narratives. She is the author of Cold War Democracy: The United States and Japan (2019). She earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University, and an M.A. and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
March 2019
March 19, 2019--On Tuesday, 19 March 2019 at 1130 in room M1 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, there will be a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Scott Mobley. He will be speaking on "Progressives in Navy Blue: Reforging the U.S. Naval Profession for Peer-to-Peer Competition, 1873-1898."
Dr. Mobley is the associate director for the Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of Progressives in Navy Blue: Maritime Strategy, American Empire, and the Transformation of U.S. Naval Identity, 1873-1898 (2018), and has also co-edited Voices & Visions, an online resource of the history of U.S. foreign relations and primary audio-visual resources. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and is a retired naval officer. He holds an M.A. in national security affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School, and an M.A. and PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
December 2018
December 6, 2018--On Thursday, 6 December 2018 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, there will be a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Christopher Lamb. He will be speaking on "The Mayaguez Crisis: What Happened, Why, and Does It Matter?"
Dr. Lamb is a research fellow at National Defense University. He previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Resources and Plans; as the director of policy planning in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict; as deputy director for military development in the State Department's Interagency Task Force for Military Stabilization in the Balkans; and as director for requirements and plans in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
November 2018
November 2, 2018--On Friday 2 November 2018 at 1200 in the Pentagon Auditorium, the U.S. Army Center of Military History will commemorate the Vietnam War 50th anniversary by holding a panel discussion with five Army photographers who were assigned to the Department of the Army Special Photographic Office (DASPO) during the war. See their iconic pictures and films and listen to their first-hand stories behind their stunning images.
If you are unable to attend the event in person, please follow on Facebook for the live stream at www.facebook.com/armyhistory.
July 2018
July 16, 2018--On Monday 16 July 2018 at 1200 in the Pentagon Auditorium, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs Lt. Gen Dennis M. McCarthy, USMCR (Ret.), Col. Forrest L. Marion, USAFR (Ret.), and Col. Jon T. Hoffman, USMCR (Ret.). They will be speaking on "Forging a Total Force: The Evolution of the Guard and Reserve."
Dennis M. McCarthy served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1968 to 2005, retiring as a lieutenant general. He served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs from 2009 to 2011. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Dayton and a law degree from Capital University Law School.
Forrest L. Marion is a staff historian at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. He served 30 years in the Air Force in both active and reserve components, and retired as a colonel in 2010. He holds advanced degrees in history from the University of Alabama and the University of Tennessee.
Jon T. Hoffman is the chief historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History. He served 30 years in the Marine Corps Reserve, including 17 years of active duty, and retired as a colonel in 2008. He hold an undergraduate degree from Miami University (Ohio), a Master's degree from Ohio State University, and a law degree from Duke University Law School.
Marion and Hoffman are the authors of Forging a Total Force: The Evolution of the Guard and Reserve (2018).
June 2018
June 1, 2018--The OSD Historical Office recently published Forging A Total Force: The Evolution of the Guard and Reserve by Col. Forrest L. Marion, USAFR (Ret.) and Col. Jon T. Hoffman, USMCR (Ret.). This book traces the evolution of law and policies governing the Guard and reserve from the militias of the Revolutionary War era to today's high-tempo operational force.
Forrest L. Marion is a staff historian at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Alabama. He served 30 years in the Air Force in both active and reserve components, and retired as a colonel in 2010. He holds advanced degrees in history from the University of Alabama and the University of Tennessee, is a frequent contributor to Air Power History, and is the author of three books on Air Force history.
Jon T. Hoffman is the chief historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History. He served 30 years in the Marine Corps Reserve, including 17 years of active duty, and retired as a colonel in 2008. He served six years as deputy chief historian for the Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office, and is author, coauthor, or editor of eight books on topics ranging from Marine Corps history to the Army's work on the Panama Canal.
For more information, and to read the volume, visit our Other Publications page under http://history.defense.gov/Publications/Other-Publications/. Hard copies are available for purchase from the Government Printing Office (GPO).
May 2018
May 22, 2018--On Tuesday, 22 May 2018 at 1100 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Mara Karlin. She will be speaking on "Building Militaries in Fragile States: Challenges for the United States."
Dr. Karlin is an Associate Professor of the Practice of Strategic Studies at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. She is also the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy & Force Development.
April 2018
March 2018
January 2018
December 2017
*****CANCELLATION*****
REGRETATABLY, THE OSD HISTORICAL OFFICE ANNOUNCES THE CANCELLATION OF THE 5 DECEMBER 2017 ROUNDTABLE EVENT AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES.
THE OSD HISTORICAL OFFICE PLANS TO RESCHEDULE THIS EVENT IN THE NEAR FUTURE. WE WILL POST AN ANNOUNCEMENT WHEN WE HAVE CONFIRMED A NEW DATE.
December 5, 2017— On Tuesday, 5 December 2017 at 1200 in the William G. McGowan Theater at the National Archives in Washington, DC, the OSD Historical Office presents a roundtable discussion for Harold Brown: Offsetting the Soviet Military Challenge, 1977-1981.
Roundtable panelists include Secretary of Defense Harold Brown (1977-1981); Secretary of Defense William J. Perry (1994-1997); Dr. Eliot A. Cohen, the Robert E. Osgood Professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies; and Dr. Edward C. Keefer, author of Harold Brown: Offsetting the Soviet Military Challenge, 1977-1981.
November 2017
November 8, 2017— On Wednesday, 8 November 2017 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, the OSD Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Rachel Levandoski. She will be speaking on "War, Psychological Trauma, and the American Medical Experience in World War I."
Rachel Levandoski is a contract historian in the OSD Historical Office. She is a specialist in 20th century American military history and the social history of medicine.
October 2017
October 18, 2017— The OSD Historical Office is pleased to announced the release of a supplement containing a selection of documents cited in Harold Brown: Offsetting the Soviet Military Challenge, 1977-1981. The author, Dr. Edward C. Keefer, selected documents based on their historical significance, with a preference for material created by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and those not included in Foreign Relations of the United States volumes covering the Jimmy Carter administration. Many are being released here for the first time.
The documents are arranged by chapter and can be accessed by clicking on the document title in the table of contents. All of the documents are either unclassified or have been properly declassified. The supplement is formatted as a large PDF (800+ pages; approximately 85MB), and can best be viewed by downloading the file in its entirely rather than by opening it in a browser. It can be accessed by clicking here
September 2017
September 30, 2017— Today, the OSD Historical Office published Harold Brown and the Imperatives of Foreign Policy, 1977-1981 by Edward C. Keefer. It examines Secretary of Defense Harold Brown's foreign policy contribution to the administration of President Jimmy Carter. Brown began his tenure at the Pentagon determined to limit his focus to national security policy and military issues. As the Carter administration faced a series of complex international challenges and crises, however, Brown became more involved in formulating and implementing foreign policy.
It is available for download here
September 20, 2017— On Wednesday, 20 September 2017 at 1300 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference and Library Center, the Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Edward C. Keefer. He will be speaking on his new book, Harold Brown: Offsetting the Soviet Military Challenge, 1977-1981.
Dr. Keefer joined the OSD Historical Office in 2009. Prior to his joining OSDHO, Dr. Keefer served for 34 years as an editor for the U.S. Department of State's official documentary series, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS). During that time, he edited 25 FRUS volumes, many of which documented U.S. policy during the Vietnam War. After 2002, he was general editor of the series until his retirement from the State Department in 2009. Dr. Keefer holds a B.A. from McGill University and a Ph.D. in history from Michigan State University.
August 2017
August 9, 2017— The OSD Historical Office recently published Harold Brown: Offsetting the Soviet Military Challenge, 1977-1981, volume IX in the Secretaries of Defense Historical Series. The book examines Secretary of Defense Harold Brown's efforts to counter the Soviet Union's growing military strength during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. The author, Dr. Edward C. Keefer, served 34 years as an editor of the U.S. Department of State's official documentary series, Foreign Relations of the United States, and has written articles and contributed to books on United States policy in East and Southeast Asia.
For more information, and to read the volume, visit our Secretaries of Defense Historical Series page under "Publications," http://history.defense.gov/Publications/Secretaries-of-Defense-Historical-Series/. Hard copies are available for purchase from the Government Publishing Office (GPO).
July 2017
July 25, 2017— On Tuesday, 25 July 2017 at 1300 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference and Library Center, the Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Eliot A. Cohen. He will be speaking on "The Big Stick."
Dr. Cohen is the Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. His most recent book is The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force (2017).
May 2017
May 24, 2017— On Wednesday, 24 May 2017 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference and Library Center, the Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Michael Neiberg. He will be speaking on "Path to War: U.S. Entry into World War I."
Dr. Neiberg is a Professor of History in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S Army War College. His most recent book is The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America (2016).
April 2017
April 25, 2017— On Tuesday, 25 April 2017 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference and Library Center, the Historical Office will host a Speaker Series panel featuring Dr. Thomas Boghardt; Dr. Robert Doughty; and Dr. Jennifer Keene. They will be speaking on "Perspectives on American Entry into World War I."
Dr. Boghardt is a senior historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History where he focuses on U.S. military intelligence operations in postwar Europe. He has served as the historian at the International Spy Museum and as a Thyssen fellow at Georgetown University. He is the author of several books, including The Zimmerman Telegram (2012) and Spies of the Kaiser (2005). He received his PhD in modern European history from the University of Oxford.
Dr. Doughty retired as a Brigadier General from the U.S. Army in 2005 after forty years of service. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1965 and received his PhD from Kansas University in 1979. He served as the Head of the Department of History at the U.S. Military Academy from 1985-2005. He is the author of numerous articles and five books and is currently working on a paper about Franco-American relations during World War I.
Dr. Keene is Professor and Chair of the Department of History at Chapman University. She is a specialist in American military experiences during World War I and has published three books on American involvement in the First World War: Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America (2001); World War I: The American Soldier Experience (2011); and, The United States and the First World War (2000). She is also currently president of the Society of Military History. She received her PhD from Carnegie Mellon University.
March 2017
March 28, 2017— On Tuesday, 28 March 2017 at 1230 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference and Library Center, the Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Michael Warner. Dr. Warner will be speaking about "The Rise and Fall of Intelligence: Lessons from History for Tomorrow."
Dr. Warner is the Command Historian at the U.S. Cyber Command.
February 2017
February 21, 2017— Today, the OSD Historical Office published NSPS: The Brief, Eventful History of the National Security Personnel System by Anthony R. Crain. In early 2003 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld attempted to transform civilian management in the Department of Defense by replacing the General Schedule (GS) system with a new National Security Personnel System (NSPS). NSPS was a significant challenge to the GS system that had implications far beyond the Defense Department. Rumsfeld's OSD successfully pushed the system through Congress but struggled to implement it effectively. After becoming a subject of great controversy, DoD wound down the system in the first years of Barack Obama's presidency.
With the publication of this first occasional paper, the OSD Historical Office embarks on a new series that intends to provide scholarly perspectives on policy issues, offer a forum for our historians' papers presented at academic conferences, summarize office publications that are works in progress, or cover other discrete topics.
This paper is available for download here
February 28, 2017— On Tuesday, 28 February 2017 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference and Library Center, the Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Dr. Francis Gavin. Dr. Gavin will be speaking on "Rethinking the History of the Nuclear Age."
Dr. Gavin is the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University-Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
December 2016
December 6, 2016— On Tuesday, 6 December 2016 at 1200 in the Pentagon Auditorium, the Historical Office will host a discussion with former Secretary of Defense William Perry (1994-1997) about his memoir, My Journey at the Nuclear Brink. Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy (2009-2012) will moderate.
December 1, 2016— On Thursday, 1 December 2016 at 1230 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library & Conference Center, the Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Annette Amerman. She will be speaking on "Marines at Belleau Woods."
Amerman is the Branch Head and Historian of the Marine Corps History Division's Historical Reference Branch.
November 2016
November 3, 2016— On Thursday, 3 November 2016 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, the Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Kevin Hymel. He will be speaking on "Patton's Photographs: War As He Saw It."
Hymel is a historian in the U.S. Air Force Chief of Chaplains Office.
September 2016
September 28, 2016— On Wednesday, 28 September 2016 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, the Historical Office will host a Speaker Series event featuring Brian Linn. He will be speaking on "Elvis's Army: Military Transformation in the 1950s."
Linn is the Ralph R. Thomas Professor in Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of "Elvis's Army: The Transformation of the Atomic Soldier" (2006) and four previous books: "The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War" (1989); "Guardians of Empire: The U.S. Army and the Pacific, 1902-1940" (1997); "The Philippine War, 1899-1902" (2000); and "The Echo of Battle: The Army's Way of War" (2007).
June 2016
June 20, 2016— The OSD Historical Office is pleased to announce the release of a supplement complimenting the official history of Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird by making available a selection of documents cited in the notes of Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969-1973. The documents selected were chosen for their historical significance with a preference for material created by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The documents are arranged by chapter and can be accessed by clicking on the document title in the table of contents. All of the documents are either unclassified or have been properly declassified. The supplement can be accessed by clicking here.
June 28, 2016— On Tuesday, 28 June 2016 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, the Historical Office will host a History Speakers Series event marking the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. The talk will feature Thomas Christianson, LTC(R), Senior Historian in the Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office.
May 2016
May 26, 2016— On Thursday, 26 May 2016 at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, the Historical Office will host a History Speakers Series event on "American Grand Strategy Today: Lessons from the Cold War." The talk will feature Dr. Hal Brands, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and Associate Professor of Public Policy and History at Duke University. His most recent book is Making the Unipolar Moment: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Rise of the Post-Cold War Order.
March 2016
March 3, 2016— On Thursday, 3 March at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, the Historical Office will host a History Speakers Series event on air combat operations during the Vietnam War. The talk will feature Dr. Mark Clodfelter, Professor of Military Strategy at the National War College. He is the author of The Limits of Air Power: The American Bombing of Air Vietnam (2006).
January 2016
January 21, 2016 — On Thursday, 21 January at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Library and Conference Center, Dr. John Sherwood of the Naval History and Heritage Command will speak on the development and evolution of riverine warfare up to the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War.
Dr. Sherwood is the author of War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam, 1965-1968.
November 2015
November 17, 2015 — On Tuesday, 17 November at 1200 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, Andrew Krepinevich and Barry Watts will be discussing the Office of Net Assessment and Andy Marshall’s role in shaping American defense strategy. The Director of Net Assessment, James Baker, will be making introductory remarks.
Dr. Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr. is President of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He assumed this position in 1993, following a 21-year career in the U.S. Army. He served in the Department of Defense’s Office of Net Assessment, and on the personal staff of three secretaries of defense. He has also served as a member of the National Defense Panel, the Defense Science Board Task Force on Joint Experimentation, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ Policy Board. He currently serves on the Chief of Naval Operations' Advisory Board. He recently published The Last Warrior: Andrew Marshall and the Shaping of Modern Defense Strategy, which he co-authored with Barry Watts. His other recent book is titled 7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores War in the 21st Century. His next book, War Like No Other, has a tentative release date of 2017. A graduate of West Point, Dr. Krepinevich holds an M.P.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Barry Watts was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) from 2002 until retiring in 2013. From 2006 to 2010 he taught a course on net assessment in Georgetown University’s strategic studies program. Prior to joining CSBA, he headed the Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation at the Defense Department (2001-2002). Following retirement from the Air Force in 1986 until 2001, Mr. Watts was with the Northrop Grumman Analysis Center, which he directed from 1997 to 2001. During his Air Force career, he flew a combat tour in Vietnam in F-4s, taught logic and philosophy at the U.S. Air Force Academy, served two tours in the Office of Net Assessment, and headed the Red Team in the Air Staff’s Project Checkmate. He has written on a wide variety of military topics, including a number of CSBA monographs. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh.
October 2015
October 22, 2015 — On Thursday, 22 October at 1100 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, Dr. Don Carter will be speaking about U.S. Army forces in Europe during the 1950s and early 1960s.
Dr. Carter graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1977 and served as a Field Artillery Officer until 1992. During that time, he received a Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University in 1985 and served as a military history instructor, both at West Point and at the U.S. Army Field Artillery School at Fort Still, Oklahoma. After leaving the Army he joined the U.S. Army Center of Military History (CMH) as an archivist. In 1995, he left CMH to serve with the Gulf War Declassification Project and the U.S. Army Declassification Activity. He returned to CMH in 2003 as a historian. His publications include "Eisenhower Versus the Generals," Journal of Military History (October 2007); "The U.S. Military Response to the 1960-1962 Berlin Crisis," for the National Archives pamphlet commemorating the release of Cold War records; "Wargames in Europe: The U.S. Army Experiments with Atomic Doctrine," in Blueprints for Battle (University Press of Kentucky, 2012); and Forging the Shield: The U.S. Army in Europe, 1951-1962 (Center of Military History, United States Army, 2015).
September 2015
September 30, 2015 — Today the OSD Historical Office published Creating the Alter Ego: Deputy Secretaries of Defense in the Truman Administration, 1949-1953, by Shannon E. Mohan. Throughout the history of the Department of Defense, the deputy secretaries have been vital in administering, shaping, and helping to carry out military and national security policy. However, the histories, identities, and influence of the 32 officeholders have received little scholarly attention. This is the first in a series of studies by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office that examine the deputies' roles in departmental operations and the policymaking process.
Creating the Alter Ego traces the origins of the position, including biographical highlights of the first three deputies, and explains their responsibilities in relation to their respective secretaries.
September 30, 2015 — Today the OSD Historical Office published The Decline of Détente: Elliot Richardson, James Schlesinger, and Donald Rumsfeld, 1973-1977, by Walter S. Poole. It examines the role of three secretaries of defense during Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford's administrations. Despite an overall thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations during Nixon's first term, tension with the Soviet Union marked the tenures of these three secretaries. In particular, Schlesinger's management of U.S. military aid to Israel in October 1973 to counter Soviet aid to Arab states and Rumsfeld's efforts to undermine strategic arms limitations talks illustrated the limitations of détente.
July 2015
July 17, 2015 — The American public remembers the terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the same way that an earlier generation recollects the attack on Pearl Harbor. People remember where they were when they heard the news and then watched the horrifying images unfold on television. In 2007, the OSD Historical Office published an account of the aircraft strike on the Pentagon and the next few days thereafter. Titled Pentagon 9/11, the book did not attempt to provide an overarching narrative that covered all angles. Instead, it kept the focus "on what happened to people and to the building on 11 September 2001 as seen chiefly through the eyes of participants and observers." Based primarily on oral history interviews conducted in the weeks after the attack, it presented a firsthand view of that horrific experience.
On 17 July, the OSD Historical Office will release 65 of those oral history transcripts that underpinned the book, making them available to scholars and the public for the first time. They run the gamut from military personnel and civilian employees in the building to first responders arriving on the scene, and include an interview with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The oral history interviews were those conducted by the OSD Historical Office. Many other interviews were done by the military services, and those are not included in this release.
The interview transcripts will be available on the OSD Historical Office website at http://history.defense.gov/
July 14, 2015 — On Tuesday, 14 July 2015, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office presents a Roundtable Discussion and Book Launch for Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969-1973. This event will be held from 12:00 pm-1:30 p.m. in the William G. McGowan Theater at the National Archives, Washington, DC.
Former United States Senator John Warner (VA) will deliver keynote remarks. Roundtable panelists include Dr. Richard A. Hunt, author of Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969-1973; Dr. Jeremi Suri, Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs, University of Texas at Austin; and Dr. George Herring, Alumni Professor of History Emeritus, University of Kentucky.
This event is open to the public; no RSVP is necessary.
July 13, 2015 — On Monday, 13 July 2015, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office will host a panel discussion to mark the publication of the seventh volume in the "Secretaries of Defense Historical Series." Volume VII is entitled "Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969-1973." Panel participants include the author, Dr. Richard A. Hunt; Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office Chief Historian, Dr. Erin R. Mahan; Charles Bowsher, former Comptroller General of the United States; and, Lt. Gen. Robert E. Pursley USAF (Ret.).
This event will be held from 1230-1330 in the Pentagon Conference Center, Room B6.
June 2015
June 15, 2015 — The OSD Historical Office recently published Melvin Laird and the Foundation of the Post-Vietnam Military, 1969-1973, Volume VII in the Secretaries of Defense Historical Series. The book examines Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird's efforts to reconstitute the Department of Defense during the last years of the Vietnam War. The author, Dr. Richard A. Hunt, has written articles and reviews on the war in Vietnam, including Pacification: The American Struggle for Vietnam's Hearts and Minds.
For more information, and to read the volume, visit our Secretaries of Defense Historical Series page under "Publications."
June 9, 2015 — On Tuesday, 9 June 2015 at 1100 in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, Alan McPherson will be speaking about U.S. military operations in Latin America, how U.S. soldiers had to encourage nationalism, and how the lessons from the occupations in Haiti, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic are parallel to the current situations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Alan McPherson is Professor of International and Area Studies and Director of the Center for the Americas at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of dozens of articles and book chapters on U.S.-Latin American relations, as well as the author or editor of seven books. "The Invaded," from which his Pentagon talk is taken, has won two national book prizes.
May 2015
April 2015
April 22, 2015 — On 22 April 2015 at 10:30 a.m. in the Pentagon Auditorium (BH650), the Hon. Kim Beazley, Australian Ambassador to the United States, will deliver an address to mark the 100th anniversary of the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC).
February 2015
February 24, 2015— Dr. Max Paul Friedman is a Professor of History at American University where he specializes in 20th-century U.S. foreign relations. A graduate of Oberlin College and U.C. Berkeley, he was a Woodrow Wilson Postdoctoral Fellow and has taught at Boulder, Tallahassee, and Cologne. His first book, Nazis and Good Neighbors: The United States Campaign against the Germans of Latin America in World War II (Cambridge University Press, 2003) won the Herbert Hoover Prize in U.S. History and the A.B. Thomas Prize in Latin American Studies. He co-edited, with Padraic Kenney, Partisan Histories: The Past in Contemporary Global Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). His most recent book is Rethinking Anti-Americanism: The History of an Exceptional Concept in American Foreign Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2012). He is a 2013-2014 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and 2014 American University Scholar/Teacher of the Year. On Tuesday, 24 February 2015 at 1 pm in Room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, he will be speaking about U.S.-French relations in a presentation entitled, "FRENchEMIES. France and the United States: Junior Partner or Oldest Enemy?"
January 2015
January 16, 2015— Today the OSD Historical Office published ISA-The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs: A Brief History, by Joel C. Christenson. Written at the request of Assistant Secretary of Defense for ISA Derek Chollet, it traces the Office's development through more than 65 years of service to the Department of Defense and the nation. From modest origins coordinating foreign military assistance in the late 1940s, to its evolution as a policymaking hub through numerous Cold War crises, to its pivotal role in shaping U.S. national security policy in the post-9/11 world, the study provides the first dedicated historical treatment of the office long known as DoD's "Little State Department." It is available for download here.
December 2014
December 3, 2014— Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Yates is from the U.S. Army Center of Military History, where he is currently writing an official history of the U.S. Army’s role in Somalia, 1992-1994. Previously, he worked at the Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and taught and wrote about U.S. military interventions, contingency and stability operations, and unconventional warfare. He is the author of "Leavenworth Paper No. 15, Power Pack: U.S. Intervention in the Dominican Republic, 1965-1966"; "The US Military’s Experience in Stability Operations, 1789-2005"; "The U.S. Military Intervention in Panama"; coauthor of "My Clan Against the World: U.S. and Coalition Forces in Somalia, 1992-1994"; and coeditor of—and a contributor to—"Block by Block: The Challenges of Urban Operations.
On Wednesday 3 December at 11:30am in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center, he will be speaking about "Crisis, Innovation, Restoration: The U.S. Military in Panama, 1989-1990." In his presentation, Dr. Yates will discuss the U.S. military in Panama and its role in Operation Just Cause.
October 2014
October 9, 2014— Dr. Thomas Lassman is curator of the post-1945 rocket and missile collection at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. He is the author of Sources of Weapon Systems Innovation in the Department of Defense: The Role of In-House Research and Development, 1945-1960, (U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2008). He received a B.A. degree in history from Washington University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University. His research interests focus on the history of U.S. industrial and military R&D and the history of weapon systems acquisition in the Department of Defense.
He will discuss the management and organization of weapons research and development in the U.S. Army during the early years of the Cold War (1945-1960) on Thursday, October 9th at 12:30pm in room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center.
September 2014
September 29, 2014 — The OSD Historical Office recently published special studies #5 and #6 in its Cold War Foreign Policy Series. The series emphasizes the secretary of defense’s role in the U.S. foreign policymaking process and how the position evolved between 1947 and the end of the Cold War. Study #5, written by Joel C. Christenson, is entitled Expanding the Secretary’s Role in Foreign Affairs: Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, 1963-1968. It examines the continued growth in the secretary’s role in overseas affairs as the United States escalated its war in Vietnam and confronted other challenges during the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson. Study # 6, written by Richard A. Hunt and entitled Melvin Laird and Nixon’s Quest for a Post-Vietnam Foreign Policy, addresses growth in the defense secretary’s influence relative to the secretary of state during the first term of the Nixon administration.
Click here to download PDF versions of these studies.
April 2014
April 30, 2014 — On Wednesday, April 30th at 1:00pm, the OSD Historical Office will host a panel discussion in the National Defense University’s Baruch Auditorium to mark the publication of the newest volume in the History of Acquisition in the Department of Defense series, Adapting to Flexible Response, 1960-1968. The panel will feature the volume’s author, Dr. Walter S. Poole and former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, as well as Dr. Linda S. Brandt and Dr. Shannon A. Brown, both of NDU’s Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy.
Adapting to Flexible Response presents a broad overview of weapons acquisition during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson presidential administrations. It includes focused case histories of major weapons programs and useful explanations of program management, budgeting, and contracting practices during the 1960s. The volume also captures the influence of politics and national security strategy on acquisition, as well as the unique challenges of fielding weapons for the Vietnam War. The author of the volume, Dr. Walter S. Poole, is a highly respected military historian who has written numerous books, including five volumes in the series, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as several co-authored studies and shorter monographs for the Office of Joint History.
April 16, 2014 — Colonel Clarence R. Anderegg, (USAF, Ret.) is Director of Air Force History and Museum Policies and Programs, and serves as the historical adviser to the Secretary of the Air Force and Air Force Chief of Staff.
He is a thirty-year Air Force veteran, and flew more than 170 missions in the Vietnam War. A graduate of Troy State University and the Air Command and Staff College, he is the author of The Ash Warriors and Sierra Hotel.
Col. Anderegg will speak on change within the U.S. Air Force after the Vietnam War in Room B6 of the Pentagon Conference Center on Wednesday, April 16th at 1100.
March 2014
March 25, 2014 — Dr. Adam R. Seipp is Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005.
A specialist in German military history, his most recent book, Strangers in the Wild Place: Refugees, Americans, and a German Town, 1945-1952, was published in 2013.
He will speak on the U.S. occupation of Germany from 1945-1949 in Room B1 of the Pentagon Conference Center on Tuesday, March 25th at 1330.
February 2014
February 26, 2014 — The OSD Historical Office recently published Adapting to Flexible Response, 1960–1968, Volume II in the series, History of Acquisition in the Department of Defense. The book presents a broad overview of weapons acquisition during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson presidential administrations. It includes focused case histories of major weapons programs and useful explanations of program management, budgeting, and contracting practices during the 1960s. The volume captures the influence of politics and national security strategy on acquisition, as well as the unique challenges of fielding weapons for the Vietnam War. The author of the volume, Dr. Walter S. Poole, is a highly respected military historian who has written numerous books, including five volumes in the series, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as several co-authored studies and shorter monographs for the Office of Joint History.
For more information, and to read the volume, visit our Acquisition History page.
February 24, 2014 — Dr. Isaac Hampton II is the Command Historian at U.S. Army South, San Antonio, Texas, where he provides historical support to U.S. Army activities in the Caribbean and Latin America.
An accomplished scholar and lecturer, in 2013 he published The Black Officer Corps: A History of Black Military Advancement from Integration Through Vietnam.
He will speak on the journey of African American officers through the Vietnam era in the Pentagon Auditorium on Monday, February 24 at 1100.
October 2013
October 8, 2013 — A former Wall Street analyst and speechwriter, Ian Toll is the author of two widely respected works of naval history.
His first book, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the of the Founding of the U.S. Navy (2006), was the winner of the Samuel Eliot Morison and William E. Colby Awards, and his second work, Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-42, was released in 2011 to wide acclaim.
Mr. Toll lives in San Francisco.
July 2013
July 1, 2013 — Dr. Carol Reardon is the George Winfree Professor of American History at Penn State University. She specializes in the Civil War and the Vietnam War eras and focuses on the evolution of professional military education, the development of military doctrine, and military theory. Professor Reardon is actively involved in professional military education and conducts staff rides to Civil War battlefields and open-air classrooms to discuss the art of war in historical context. She has also taught at the U.S. Army War College, the Marine Corps Command and Staff College, and the U.S. Military Academy.
Dr. Reardon is the author of Solders and Scholars (1990), Pickett's Charge in History and Memory (1997), and Launch the Intruders: A Naval Squadron in the Vietnam War, 1972 (2009). Her current project is an analysis of the military history of the Civil War's Eastern theater.
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
January 2013
January 22, 2013 — The 2012 edition of Key Officials is now available online. The document is a compilation of information about the organization of and senior officials in the Department of Defense since its establishment in 1947. Key Officials encompasses the upper echelons of the department, including civilian officials in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the military departments as well as the top leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Combatant Commands, and certain field activities and agencies. It shows all officials who have held a listed OSD position since the inception of the department and indicates where positions have been superseded by new titles or organizational changes.
To keep the information current, the Historical Office is publishing Key Officials online and will revise it every month to reflect the latest information. The Historical Office will print a limited number of hard copy versions every four years, generally late in the inaugural year of each administration (after the vast majority of changes in senior officials occur). The online version can be found at: http://history.defense.gov/pub_ko.shtml.
December 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012