Defense Act of 1920

The Defense Act of 1920 (or Kahn Act) was sponsored by Representative Julius Kahn (R) of California. This landmark piece of legislation reorganized the military and civilian arms of the US Army to enable it to contribute its appropriate share of troops in a war emergency. The Defense Act of 1920 also de-centralized the process of approving defense contracts.

Organization of the Army

This landmark piece of legislation established the Army of the United States as an organization of three components: a) the professional Regular Army, b) the civilian National Guard (previously officially referred to as the “Militia,” and c) the civilian Organized Reserves (Officers' and Enlisted Reserve Corps).

Each component of the military was to be so regulated in peacetime that it could contribute its appropriate share of troops in a war emergency. The act also established the Militia Bureau (later called the National Guard Bureau) to head the National Guard. It maintained a standing peacetime force too small to be expanded to meet the needs of a great war, and therefore necessarily depended on a new Army of civilian soldiers for large mobilizations. In contrast to earlier practice, the training of civilian components now became a major peacetime task of the Regular Army. The maximum number of men was set at 280,000 with 17,000 officers. This act became the basis of United States military defense until 1950.

Cooperation between military and industrial leaders

What ultimately made this act so important was that for the first time it fostered peacetime consultation and cooperation between the military and war industry leaders. In past times, the President of the United States as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces had to personally approve a government defense contract and needed quite a number of secretaries to help him keep track of such things in wartime. The Defense Act of 1920 de-centralized the process, allowing the Secretary of War and the Army Chief of Staff to actively investigate new technologies, and work with existing defense-oriented firms to secure manufacturing contracts without explicit Executive knowledge, thus circumventing a distinct Constitutional control ideally intended to prevent a collusion between what later were called the “merchants of death” and corrupt bureaucrats being biased and pushing for legislation and bills behind the scenes that specifically benefited particular firms over others.

It also opened the way for retiring military officers and Federal bureaucrats to secure jobs in the private sector as they were “paid back” for their friendly services while within government by big firms for their assistance in securing defense contracts, thus creating the new “position” of “technical advisor” for various companies.

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