The US Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1946-1953

The US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) committee was the principal US inter-service body which, together with the British Chiefs of Staff, formed the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee, the supreme Anglo- American military strategic and operational authority, 1942-1945. With the formation of the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) in Dec 1941 it became necessary to form an American agency with comparable decision making structure to that of the British Chiefs of Staff (COS). This was formally inaugurated in Feb 1942 as the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) committee, its first members being Gen George Catlett Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff , Adm Harold Raynsford Stark and Adm Ernest Joseph King, US Navy, and Lt Gen Henry H 'Hap' Arnold, US Army Air Forces. In Jul 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Adm William D Leahy as his political and military representative and Chief of Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee. Unlike the British Chiefs of Staff (COS), which was integrated into the British Cabinet system, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff was responsible primarily to the President of the United States as Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces. Under Leahy's leadership, the Joint Chiefs of Staff became the centre of the US executive command structure during World War Two and was responsible for operational strategy in the Pacific, the co-ordination of US military operations in the Far East, and the planning and co-ordination of US operational strategy elsewhere. In addition, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and the British Chiefs of Staff functioned together under the auspices of the Combined Chiefs of Staff to plan Allied strategic and operational efforts in Europe, North Africa, and the Far East. Following World War Two, the need for a formal structure of US joint command was apparent and the wartime Joint Chiefs of Staff offered a workable model. The first legislative step was the passage of the National Security Act in 1947, which formally established the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On 10 Aug 1949 the Joint Chiefs of Staff became a US statutory agency and the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), became the principal military advisor to the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Council. The other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff included the Chief of Staff, US Army, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff, US Air Force, and the Commandant, US Marine Corps. The chiefs were able to respond to a request or voluntarily submit, through the Chairman, advice or opinion to the President, the Secretary of State, or the National Security Council, but they had no executive authority to commit combatant forces. In addition to their responsibilities on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military service chiefs were responsible to the secretaries of their military departments for management of the services as they prepared and directed unified and other combat commands under the Secretary of Defense.