A Brief History of the Comptroller’s Office(con't)

Shortly after World War II ended, the U.S. Government took steps to reorganize and consolidate national security. President Truman summarized the need in a message to Congress in December, 1945. He wrote, “Technological developments have made the Armed Services much more dependent upon each other than ever before. The boundaries that once separated the Army’s battlefield from the Navy’s battlefield have been virtually erased…. True preparedness now means preparedness not alone in armaments and numbers of men, but preparedness in organization also.”

President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 and reorganized military forces by merging the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment (later the Department of Defense) and creating the U.S. Air Force. The act also created the CIA and the National Security Council.