War Cabinet

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A war cabinet is a committee of ministers set up mainly in Great Britain and the USA , which the government entrusts with special tasks in times of war. The ministries that are most important to the conduct of the war are mainly represented. The ministers can be supplemented by senior officers of the armed forces and representatives of the opposition.

In the 20th century, the British government formed War Cabinets in both World War I and World War II .

The Council of Ministers for Reich Defense , which was formed in Germany shortly before the start of the Second World War, was also referred to as the 'War Cabinet' in the indictment for the Nuremberg Trial .

United Kingdom

First World War

During the First World War, it was felt that lengthy cabinet discussions were impractical. In December 1916 it was proposed that Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith delegate decision-making to a small three-man committee chaired by the Secretary of State for War David Lloyd George . Asquith initially agreed (provided he retained the right to chair the committee if he chose) until he changed his mind after upset over an article in the Times newspaper that described the proposed change as a defeat for him . From then on there was a political crisis; Asquith was forced to resign as Prime Minister. He was succeeded by David Lloyd George; this formed a small war cabinet.

Members from the start were:

Lloyd George Curzon and Bonar Law were members as long as the War Cabinet existed. Among the later members were

Second World War

Chamberlain

After the declaration of war on September 3, 1939 was Neville Chamberlain during the formation of the war government Chamberlain his War Cabinet announced on the same day:

Since the cabinet was dominated by former appeasement politicians who had been members of Chamberlain's National Government (1937–1939), members appeared to be Lord Hankey (a former Cabinet Secretary during World War I) and Winston Churchill (staunch opponent the appeasement policy) to make the cabinet more balanced. In contrast to Lloyd George's war cabinet, this time the members were also heads of government departments (ministries or similar).

Hore-Belisha resigned from the National Government in January 1940 after disagreements with the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces ; he refused to accept the post of President of the Board of Trade . His successor in the War Cabinet was Oliver Stanley.

Churchill

When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister during the Second World War, he formed a coalition government ( Churchill was ministry ), whose war cabinet initially included the following members:

Falklands War 1982

In the spring of 1982, fought in the Falklands War Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands; Argentina lost this war. The war cabinet included:

Gulf War 1990–1991

Australia (World War II)

The Australian War Cabinet meeting in Melbourne in 1943: (from left) John Curtin, Sir Frederick Sheddon, Ben Chifley, 'Doc' Evatt, Norm Makin, Arthur Drakeford

At the 1937 Reich Conference in London, the Australian government agreed to set up a war cabinet in the event of war. The cabinet approved a facility in the wake of the outbreak of the Second World War on September 26, 1939. Since neither the Country Party nor the Australian Labor Party formed a coalition with the ruling United Australia Party , the war cabinet initially consisted of:

In November 1939 the Department of Defense was split up. The Minister for Defense became Minister for Army, the Prime Minister also became Minister for Defense Coordination and three other Ministers became members of the War Cabinet:

After Fairbairn, Street and Gullett were killed in a plane crash and after the governing party lost votes, the war cabinet consisted of:

After the Australian Labor Party took over the government on October 3, 1941, a new war cabinet was appointed:

Frederick Shedden was the General Secretary of the War Cabinet, which met regularly during World War II . Its last meeting took place on January 19, 1946.

United States

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , US President George W. Bush formed a 'War Cabinet'. It entered the weekend around 15 September 2001, together to design around what later than ' war on terror ' (Engl. 'War on Terrorism') has been known. The membership was almost (but not entirely) the same as that of the United States National Security Council .

The cabinet included

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  1. ↑ Alain Rouvez: Disconsolate Empires: French, British and Belgian Military Involvement in Post-Colonial Sub-Saharan Africa . University Press of America , 1994, ISBN 978-0-8191-9643-9 , p. 196.
  2. ^ David Horner: Inside the War Cabinet. Directing Australia's War Effort 1939–45. Allen and Unwin, St Leonards 1996, ISBN 1-86373-968-8 , p. 2.
  3. ^ David Horner: Inside the War Cabinet. St Leonards 1996, p. 3.
  4. ^ David Horner: Inside the War Cabinet. St Leonards 1996, pp. 2-3.
  5. ^ David Horner: Inside the War Cabinet. St Leonards 1996, p. 4.
  6. ^ Paul Hasluck: The Government and the People 1939-1941 (= Australia in the War of 1939-1945. Series 4, Volume I). Australian War Memorial, Canberra 1952, p. 574.
  7. ^ Paul Hasluck: The Government and the People 1939-1941. Canberra 1952, p. 577.
  8. ^ Paul Hasluck: The Government and the People 1939-1941. Canberra 1952, pp. 421-422.
  9. ^ David Horner: Inside the War Cabinet. St Leonards 1996, p. 197.