Has it worked?: The Goldwater-Nichols reorganization act - Dept of Defense re-organization

Naval War College Review,  Autumn, 2001  by James R. Locher, III

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Mr. Locher graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1968 and received an M.B.A. from Harvard University. In 1978 he joined the Senate Committee on Armed Services as a professional staff member, leading efforts that resulted in the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. In October 1989, President George H. W. Bush appointed him assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. Since 1993, he has written, lectured, consulted, and served on commissions related to the organization of the Defense Department. In 1996, he assisted the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in drafting its defense law and organizing its ministry of defense. His book Victory on the Potomac: The Goldwater-Nichols Act Unifies the Pentagon is forthcoming. This article is adapted from an address delivered at the Naval War College on 8 May 2001.

NOTES

(1.) Vernon E. Davis, The History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in World War II: Organizational Development, vol. 1, Origin of the Joint and Combined Chiefs of Staff Washington, D.C.: Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1972), P. xi.

(2.) Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War (New York: Harper and Row, 1987), p. 17.

(3.) William Frye, Marshall: Citizen Soldier (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1947), p. 325.

(4.) Larrabee, Commander in Chief, p. 105.

(5.) Quoted in Alice C. Cole et al., eds., The Department of Defense: Documents on Establishment and Organization, 1944-1978 (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1978), p. 177.

(6.) Roger R. Trask and Alfred Goldberg, The Department of Defense, 1947-1997: Organization and Leaders (Washington, D.C.: Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1997), p. 11.

(7.) James H. Kyle, The Guts to Try: The Untold Story of the Iran Hostage Rescue Mission by the On-Scene Desert Commander (New York: Orion Books, 1990), p. 283.

(8.) John M. Shalikashivili [Gen., USA], "A Word from the Chairman," Joint Force Quarterly, Autumn 1996, p. 1.

(9.) Chairman's Special Study Group, The Organization and Functions of the ICS: Report for the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (Arlington, Va.: Systems Research and Applications Corp., 1982), p. 54.

(10.) Congress, House, Committee on Armed Services [HASC], Investigations Subcommittee, Reorganization Proposals/or the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hearings before the Investigations Subcommittee, 97th Cong., 2d sess., 1982, HASC no.97-47, p. 54.

(11.) Congress, Senate, Committee on Armed Services, Organization, Structure, and Decisionmaking Procedures of the Department of Defense: Hearings before the Committee on Armed Services, 98th Cong., 1st sess., S. Hrg. 98-375, pt. 5, 2 November 1983, p. 187.

(12.) John H. Cushman, Command and Control of Theater Forces: The Korea Command and Other Cases (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1986), pp. 5-23.

(13.) Blue Ribbon Defense Panel, Report to the President and the Secretary of Defense on the Department of Defense (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1970), p. 50.