Secretary of Defense
One holder at a time · 31 terms · 1947–present
Current holder
Previous holders 30
Lloyd Austin
2021–2025
David Norquist
2021
Christopher C. Miller
2020–2021
Mark Esper
2019–2020
Jim Mattis
2017–2019
Ash Carter
2015–2017
Chuck Hagel
2013–2015
Leon Panetta
2011–2013
Robert Gates
2006–2011
Donald Rumsfeld
2001–2006
William Cohen
1997–2001
William J. Perry
1994–1997
Les Aspin
1993–1994
Dick Cheney
1989–1993
Frank Carlucci
1987–1989
Caspar Weinberger
1981–1987
Harold Brown
1977–1981
Donald Rumsfeld
1975–1977
James R. Schlesinger
1973–1975
Elliot Richardson
1973
Melvin Laird
1969–1973
Clark Clifford
1968–1969
Robert McNamara
1961–1968
Thomas S. Gates Jr.
1959–1961
Neil H. McElroy
1957–1959
Charles Erwin Wilson
1953–1957
Robert A. Lovett
1951–1953
George C. Marshall
1950–1951
Louis A. Johnson
1949–1950
James Forrestal
1947–1949
Other offices of United States
President · Vice President · Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff · Chief of Staff of the Army · Attorney General · Secretary of War · Director of Central Intelligence · Secretary of State · Secretary of the Treasury · Assistant Secretary of the Navy · Senate · House of Representatives · Governor of New York · Governor of Texas · Governor of Virginia · Governor of Arkansas · Governor of California · Governor of Georgia · Governor of Massachusetts · Governor of New Jersey · Governor of Ohio · Governor of Tennessee · Governor of Indiana · Governor of Maryland · Massachusetts House of Representatives · New York State Senate · Ohio Senate · Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army