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Military & National Security

All Presidents Political Leaders & Statecraft Law & the Judiciary Military & National Security

Role: Any Military Commander 22 Cabinet Official 4

Order: Most notable By term A–Z Born earliest Born latest Longest lived Shortest lived

25 people

Robert E. Lee 1807–1870Military & National SecurityConfederate commander whose military reputation and later commemoration became central to Civil War memory and the Lost Cause.

Douglas MacArthur 1880–1964Military & National SecurityCommander who led major Pacific campaigns, oversaw Japan’s occupation, and became central to the Korean War controversy.

George S. Patton 1885–1945Military & National SecurityArmored commander whose aggressive leadership made him one of the most prominent American generals of World War II.

William Tecumseh Sherman 1820–1891Military & National SecurityUnion general whose campaigns through Georgia and the Carolinas helped destroy the Confederacy’s capacity to wage war.

George C. Marshall 1880–1959Military & National SecurityArmy chief of staff who organized U.S. victory in World War II and later designed the Marshall Plan.

Colin Powell 1937–2021Military & National SecurityGeneral, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and secretary of state who shaped post-Cold War military and diplomatic policy.

Stonewall Jackson 1824–1863Military & National SecurityConfederate general whose Shenandoah Valley campaign became a standard study in maneuver warfare.

John J. Pershing 1860–1948Military & National SecurityCommander of the American Expeditionary Forces who built and led the U.S. Army in World War I.

Chester W. Nimitz 1885–1966Military & National SecurityFleet admiral who directed U.S. naval strategy in the Pacific during World War II.

John Paul Jones 1747–1792Military & National SecurityContinental Navy captain whose Revolutionary War victories established early American naval tradition.

Robert McNamara 1916–2009Military & National SecuritySecretary of Defense who applied systems analysis to the Pentagon and escalated the Vietnam War.

Donald Rumsfeld 1932–2021Military & National SecurityTwice Secretary of Defense who directed the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and pushed military restructuring.

Omar Bradley 1893–1981Military & National SecuritySenior World War II commander and first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Nathan Hale 1755–1776Military & National SecurityContinental Army officer hanged as a spy at 21 whose scaffold line became Revolutionary legend.

David Farragut 1801–1870Military & National SecurityThe U.S. Navy's first admiral, whose victories at New Orleans and Mobile Bay were decisive in the Civil War.

Allen Dulles 1893–1969Military & National SecurityLongest-serving CIA director who built the agency's covert operations capacity during the early Cold War.

Winfield Scott 1786–1866Military & National SecurityCommanding general whose long career, Mexico City campaign, and Anaconda Plan shaped nineteenth-century U.S. military strategy.

Audie Murphy 1925–1971Military & National SecurityMost decorated American soldier of World War II who later became a film actor.

William Westmoreland 1914–2005Military & National SecurityCommander in Vietnam whose attrition strategy and optimistic troop estimates collided with the Tet Offensive.

Nathanael Greene 1742–1786Military & National SecurityContinental Army general whose Southern Campaign strategy helped exhaust British forces and secure American independence.

George G. Meade 1815–1872Military & National SecurityUnion general whose command victory at Gettysburg marked a turning point in the Civil War.

William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan 1883–1959Military & National SecurityFounder and director of the OSS whose wartime organization became a principal institutional predecessor of the CIA.

Henry H. "Hap" Arnold 1886–1950Military & National SecurityCommanding general of the Army Air Forces who built American air power during World War II and helped lay the foundation for the Air Force.

Hyman G. Rickover 1900–1986Military & National SecurityArchitect of the nuclear Navy who transformed submarine propulsion, naval engineering, and military management.

Matthew Ridgway 1895–1993Military & National SecurityArmy commander credited with restoring U.N. forces in Korea and later serving as NATO supreme commander and Army chief of staff.