List of Secretaries of Defense
The longest-serving Secretary of Defense is the late Robert McNamara, who served for a total of 2,595 days. Combining his two non-sequential services as Secretary of Defense, the second longest serving is Donald Rumsfeld, who served merely ten days fewer than McNamara.
- Parties
Democratic Republican
- Status
No. | Portrait | Name | State of Residence | Took Office | Left Office | Days served | President |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | James Vincent Forrestal | New York | September 19, 1947 | March 19, 1949 | 558 | Harry S. Truman | ||
2 | Louis Arthur Johnson | West Virginia | March 28, 1949 | September 19, 1950 | 540 | |||
3 | George Catlett Marshall, Jr. | Pennsylvania | September 19, 1950 | September 19, 1951 | 365 | |||
4 | Robert Abercrombie Lovett | New York | September 19, 1951 | January 20, 1953 | 491 | |||
5 | Charles Erwin Wilson | Michigan | January 20, 1953 | October 8, 1957 | 1,722 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | ||
6 | Neil Hosler McElroy | Ohio | October 9, 1957 | December 1, 1959 | 783 | |||
7 | Thomas Sovereign Gates, Jr. | Pennsylvania | December 2, 1959 | January 20, 1961 | 415 | |||
8 | Robert Strange McNamara | Michigan | January 21, 1961 | February 29, 1968 | 2,595 | John F. Kennedy | ||
Lyndon B. Johnson | ||||||||
9 | Clark McAdams Clifford | Maryland | March 1, 1968 | January 20, 1969 | 326 | |||
10 | Melvin Robert Laird | Wisconsin | January 22, 1969 | January 29, 1973 | 1,469 | Richard Nixon | ||
11 | Elliot Lee Richardson | Massachusetts | January 30, 1973 | May 24, 1973 | 114 | |||
– | William Perry Clements, Jr. |
Texas | May 24, 1973 | July 2, 1973 | 39 | |||
12 | James Rodney Schlesinger | Virginia | July 2, 1973 | November 19, 1975 | 870 | |||
Gerald Ford | ||||||||
13 | Donald Rumsfeld | Illinois | November 20, 1975 | January 20, 1977 | 427 | |||
14 | Harold Brown | California | January 21, 1977 | January 20, 1981 | 1,460 | Jimmy Carter | ||
15 | Caspar Willard Weinberger | California | January 21, 1981 | November 23, 1987 | 2,497 | Ronald Reagan | ||
16 | Frank Charles Carlucci III | Virginia | November 23, 1987 | January 20, 1989 | 424 | |||
– | William Howard Taft IV |
Ohio | January 20, 1989 | March 20, 1989 | 59 | George H. W. Bush | ||
17 | Richard Bruce Cheney | Wyoming | March 21, 1989 | January 20, 1993 | 1,402 | |||
18 | Leslie Aspin, Jr. | Wisconsin | January 21, 1993 | February 3, 1994 | 378 | Bill Clinton | ||
19 | William James Perry | Pennsylvania | February 3, 1994 | January 24, 1997 | 1,085 | |||
20 | William Sebastian Cohen | Maine | January 24, 1997 | January 20, 2001 | 1,457 | |||
21 | Donald Rumsfeld | Illinois | January 20, 2001 | December 18, 2006 | 2,158 | George W. Bush | ||
22 | Robert M. Gates | Texas | December 18, 2006 | July 1, 2011 | 1,643 | |||
Barack Obama | ||||||||
23 | Leon Panetta | California | July 1, 2011 | Incumbent | 7002513000000000000513 |
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