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Highlights & Quotes Like other armed service secretaries originally appointed by George W. Bush—including James Roche and Thomas White—Gordon England arrived at the Pentagon fresh from duties as an executive of a major corporation, in this case the Pentagon contractor General Dynamics. Gordon, along with his boss Donald Rumsfeld, is a champion of military transformation. According to a Washington Times article about his appointment, one of Gordon’s chief aims as navy secretary is to develop “futuristic weapons to counter new types of threats emerging in the post-Soviet world.” General Dynamics specializes in the design of attack and ballistic missile submarines as well as tanks. (3) (5)

In late March 2005, George W. Bush nominated England as deputy secretary of defense to replace Paul Wolfowitz, who was tagged by the president to head the World Bank. England served as Navy secretary from 2001 to 2003, when he became acting deputy secretary for homeland defense. He returned to his original Navy post in late 2003, after his successor, Colin R. McMillan, committed suicide. (4) (9)

While at the Pentagon, one of England’s key tasks was to decide what to do with Guantanamo detainees who were being held as enemy combatants. At the end of this review process, 38 persons were released due to lack of evidence, what England called “thin files.” These released detainees comprised 7% of the population at the detention center, and join 214 others who have been released because of diplomatic pressure from other nations. The Pentagon began its review after a June 2004 Supreme Court ruling that granted Guantanamo prisoners the right to plead their cases in U.S. courts. (8)

England has an engineering background and has never served in the armed forces. Like many other foreign policy officials in the Bush administration, he has been criticized as a “chicken hawk.” (7) He is not a neoconservative but rather a creature of the military-industrial complex. In 2001 England received the Distinguished Service award from the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a policy institute closely associated with the Likud party and the Israeli military, as well as with the U.S. neoconservative camp and U.S. military contractors.

In his acceptance of the JINSA award, England said:

“To receive the Henry M. Jackson Distinguished Service Award has a very special meaning particularly if you’re Secretary of the Navy because he was such a strong proponent of national defense. I say that as Secretary of the Navy because the U.S. Navy has long recognized Senator Jackson’s service and patriotism by having a powerful, ballistic submarine proudly carry his name. The USS Henry M. Jackson is today on station serving our nation.

“I particularly want to thank JINSA for its long support on behalf of national defense since it was founded 25 years ago. The events of September 11th provide a useful perspective relative to this mission.

“Having achieved victory over the Axis power in WWII and following the fall of the Berlin Wall, most people in the United States and around the world concluded that having prevailed over the two evil empires of the 20th century, the world was on the verge of a long period of peace and prosperity.

“Some historians and writers likened the fall of the Berlin Fall (sic) to the beginning of Pax Romana, 200 years of world peace of the Roman Empire. After 40 plus years peace in Israel also looked promising.

“This world view is slightly clouded by Saddam Hussein and Desert Storm in the early 1990s. Once that conflict was over, the very quick and decisive allied victory was considered a validation of previous conclusions.” (2)