James Vincent Forrestal

James Vincent Forrestal , 1892-1949, U.S. secretary of the navy (1944-47) and secretary of defense (1947-49), b. Beacon, N.Y. He was a naval aviator in World War I and later began (1923) a career as an investment banker. He was appointed administrative assistant to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (June, 1940), under secretary of the navy (Aug., 1940), and secretary of the navy (1944) as successor to Frank Knox. With the reorganization of the War and the Navy departments, he became the first secretary of defense (see Defense, United States Department of ). Illness forced his resignation, and he later committed suicide.

Bibliography: See study by C. Simpson (1967); biography by T. Hoopes and D. Brinkley (1992).

Forrestal, James Vincent (1892–1949) U.S. public official and financier. Born in Matteawan, New York, he graduated from Princeton in 1915 and soon established himself as a bond salesman on Wall Street. After serving as a naval aviator in World War I, he continued to build his reputation in the securities market, and attracted the notice of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who appointed Forrestal to a number of government positions. In August 1940 he became undersecretary of the Navy, and performed a vital role building up the service for war. He became secretary in 1944, and though he initially opposed unification of the armed services, in 1947 he was confirmed as the first secretary of defense to head the National Military Establishment created by the National Security Act of 1947. Despite his diligent work to merge the services, Forrestal was especially criticized for failing to control the air force, and he had many policy disagreements with President Harry S. Truman. He resigned in March 1949 at Truman's request, suffering from nervous exhaustion and depression. While undergoing treatment at the naval hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, he jumped from a window to his death.

Forrestal, James V. (1892–1949),US banker who, from June 1940, served as one of Roosevelt's special administrative assistants before being appointed to the newly created post of under-secretary of the navy that August. As deputy to James Knox, Forrestal's responsibility was the US Navy's wartime procurement program me. He travelled extensively to combat areas and after succeeding Knox in May 1944 he became the first secretary of the navy to land under fire when he visited US forces on Iwo Jima in April 1945.

In many ways he was a man of contradictions and he was slow to make decisions, but the navy flourished under his skilled administration. That he was the sole survivor of Roosevelt's cabinet in the administration of President Truman shows his political acumen, but he always thought of himself as an investment banker and always listed his address in Washington as ‘temporary’. In July 1947 he became first US secretary of defense.