Pete Hegseth wants a new name for Defense Department: War Department. Why it matters.

[Aristus]

9. It would be a ridiculously idiotic thing to do.

At the same time, after the War Department was re-organized as the Defense Department, war and other armed conflict were very much given the corporate touch, making war seem like a business to be handled in a business-like manner. This tended to pervade all levels of the Armed Forces. During the Vietnam War, the Pentagon recruited officer candidates using corporate boardroom language, and selling a military commission as an entry into an executive position.

Officers were encouraged to follow a structured path to high rank, making sure to get their "ticket punched" at each level. Leading troops in combat, rather than being an end in itself for which to train to competence, was viewed as one of those rungs to climb. During the war in Vietnam, officers were rotated into and out of combat positions for as little as six months, after which they were rotated into staff positions to prepare them for high rank. The enlisted ranks suffered from lack of comprehensive leadership, and never getting to know, or trust, their leadership, who didn't have skin in the game anyway.

In the movie Apocalypse Now, Captain Willard remarks that his target, Col Kurtz, was being groomed for "one of the top slots in The Corporation", and there was almost no cynicism in his voice when he said it.

If there was some way to de-corporatize the Pentagon (other than re-naming it the War Department)...