Evolution of the Secretary of Defense in the era of massive retaliation

Concentrates on the three Secretaries who served under President Dwight D. Eisenhower: Charles Wilson, Neil McElroy, and Thomas Gates. The first of these Secretaries were primarily caretakers and administrators, leaving much of the lead role in American foreign policy to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. But Thomas Gates reinvigorated the role of the office in the last year of the Eisenhower presidency, providing a springboard for Robert McNamara, his successor in the John F. Kennedy administration, to increase the power of the position to unprecedented levels.