Forrestal, James Vincent (1892-1949)

US Democratic politician. As undersecretary from 1940 and secretary of the navy from 1944, he organized its war effort, accompanying the US landings on the Japanese island Iwo Jima. He was the first secretary of the Department of Defense 1947-49, a post created to unify the three armed forces at the end of World War II.

Forrestal was born in Matteawan, New York, educated at Dartmouth College and Princeton, and became a stockbroker. In his position as undersecretary to the navy, he was responsible for all material provided for the navy, and was the driving force behind an immense production of ships, planes, guns, and other munitions of war. Exhaustion and illness forced him to resign 1949, and he committed suicide. He wrote The Forrestal Diaries, published posthumously 1951. The US Navy's ‘Forrestal’ class of aircraft carriers is named after him.