United States Secretary of Defense

Defense Minister's Standard

As Secretary of Defense ( SecDef , German  "defense minister" ) is in the United States of the head of Defense of the United States (United States Department of Defense) referred. The office corresponds to what is referred to in most countries as Minister of Defense . As a precursor to the office of may War Minister (Secretary of War) are considered.

List of Defense Ministers

No.	image	Surname	Term of office	under US President
1		James V. Forrestal	September 17, 1947 - March 28, 1949	Harry S. Truman
2		Louis A. Johnson	March 28, 1949 - September 19, 1950	Harry S. Truman
3		George C. Marshall	September 21, 1950 - September 12, 1951	Harry S. Truman
4th		Robert A. Lovett	September 17, 1951 - January 20, 1953	Harry S. Truman
5		Charles E. Wilson	January 28, 1953 - October 8, 1957	Dwight D. Eisenhower
6th		Neil H. McElroy	October 9, 1957– December 1, 1959	Dwight D. Eisenhower
7th		Thomas S. Gates	December 2, 1959 - January 20, 1961	Dwight D. Eisenhower
8th		Robert McNamara	January 21, 1961 - February 29, 1968	John F. Kennedy , Lyndon B. Johnson
9		Clark M. Clifford	March 1, 1968 - January 20, 1969	Lyndon B. Johnson
10		Melvin R. Laird	January 22, 1969– January 29, 1973	Richard Nixon
11		Elliot L. Richardson	January 30, 1973– May 24, 1973	Richard Nixon
12		James R. Schlesinger	July 2, 1973 - November 19, 1975	Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford
13		Donald Rumsfeld (1st term)	November 20, 1975 - January 20, 1977	Gerald Ford
14th		Harold Brown	January 21, 1977 - January 20, 1981	Jimmy Carter
15th		Caspar Weinberger	January 21, 1981 - November 23, 1987	Ronald Reagan
16		Frank Carlucci	November 23, 1987 - January 20, 1989	Ronald Reagan
17th		Dick Cheney	March 21, 1989 - January 20, 1993	George Bush
18th		Leslie Aspin	January 21 , 1993 - February 3, 1994	Bill Clinton
19th		William Perry	February 3, 1994– January 23, 1997	Bill Clinton
20th		William Cohen	January 23, 1997– January 20, 2001	Bill Clinton
21st		Donald Rumsfeld (2nd term)	January 20, 2001 - December 18, 2006	George W. Bush
22nd		Robert Gates	December 18, 2006 - July 1, 2011	George W. Bush, Barack Obama
23		Leon Panetta	July 1, 2011– February 26, 2013	Barack Obama
24		Chuck Hagel	February 27, 2013– February 12, 2015	Barack Obama
25th		Ashton Carter	February 12, 2015– 20th January 2017	Barack Obama
26th		James N. Mattis	January 20, 2017 - December 31, 2018	Donald Trump
27		Mark Esper	since July 23, 2019	Donald Trump

Individual evidence

1. ^ Panetta Bid's Farewell to Defense Department Team
2. ↑ www.defense.gov Senate Confirms Hagel as Defense Secretary
3. ↑ www.tagesschau.de US Secretary of Defense resigns - hail goes, who comes? ( Memento from November 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Erin Laviola: Patrick Shanahan: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know. In: heavy.com. December 23, 2018, accessed December 23, 2018 .