Who is behind U.S. Department of Defense?
Shows documented founders, leaders, board members, funders and owners.
Not who made decisions, or why.
A connection is not evidence of wrongdoing.
On the record
Sourced links that no one presents as their own account, as recorded so far. Others may exist.
Led by
- Robert McNamara head of 1964 Secretary of Defense Primary record 1
- Lloyd Austin head of 2024 Secretary of Defense Scholarship & press 2
- Pete Hegseth head of 2025 Secretary of Defense Scholarship & press 2
Proof 2 sources
-
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, Volume I, Vietnam, 1964 (documents 255-308: U.S. reaction to events in the Gulf of Tonkin), Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, 1992.
Primary record
At 9:25 a.m., August 4, Secretary of Defense McNamara , Deputy Secretary of Defense Vance , and Lieutenant General David A. Burchinal, Director of the Joint Staff of the JCS , met at the Pentagon.
-
Hegseth says Wounded Knee soldiers will keep their Medals of Honor, The Associated Press (via NBC News), 26 Sep 2025.
Scholarship & press
Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin, ordered the review of the awards in 2024
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that he has decided that the 20 soldiers who received the Medal of Honor for their actions in 1890 at Wounded Knee will keep their awards
How this answer is built
Lines on the record come first: sourced links that no one presents as their own account, each with its strongest source. Then every account recorded here gets its own column, A to Z, none ranked above another. A column quotes only that account's own words and shows the strength of its own sources. Disputed lines are listed apart, with the reason, and lines still being verified come last. Neither is counted. Withdrawn lines are never shown.
When a list is longer than the page shows, the links the public methodology ranks strongest stay (methodology 0.3), and the rest open in the explorer.
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