Secretary of War in the context of "Presidency of George Washington"

The military history of the United States during World War II covers the nation's role as one of the major Allies in their victory over the Axis powers. The United States is generally considered to have entered the conflict with the 7 December 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan and exited it with the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945. During the first two years of World War II, the U.S. maintained formal neutrality, which was officially announced in the Quarantine Speech delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937. While officially neutral, the U.S. supplied Britain, the Soviet Union, and China with war materiel through the Lend-Lease Act signed into law on 11 March 1941, and deployed the U.S. military to replace the British forces stationed in Iceland. Following the 4 September 1941 Greer incident involving a German submarine, Roosevelt publicly confirmed a "shoot on sight" order on 11 September, effectively declaring naval war on Germany and Italy in the Battle of the Atlantic. In the Pacific Theater, there was unofficial early US combat activity such as the Flying Tigers.

During the war, some 16,112,566 Americans served in the United States Armed Forces, with 407,316 killed and 671,278 wounded. According to the US Department of Defense, of the 407,316 dead, about 250,000 were killed in the European theater, the remaining 160,000 died in the Pacific War. There were also 130,201 American prisoners of war, of whom 116,129 returned home after the war. Key civilian advisors to President Roosevelt included Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who mobilized the nation's industries and induction centers to supply the U.S. Army, commanded by General George C. Marshall and the Army Air Forces under General Henry H. Arnold. The U.S. Navy, led by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox and Admiral Ernest J. King, proved more autonomous. Overall priorities were set by Roosevelt and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chaired by William D. Leahy. The defeat of the Nazis was the U.S.'s official highest priority per its agreement with Britain; however, in practice, the US devoted more resources to the Pacific than Europe and Africa until 1944.

Benjamin Lincoln (January 24, 1733 (O.S. January 13, 1733) – May 9, 1810) was an American army officer. He served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Lincoln was involved in three major surrenders during the war: his participation in the Battles of Saratoga (sustaining a wound shortly afterward) contributed to John Burgoyne's surrender of a British army, he oversaw the largest American surrender of the war at the 1780 siege of Charleston, and, as George Washington's second in command, he formally accepted the British surrender at Yorktown.

Lincoln served from 1781 to 1783 as the first United States Secretary of War. While Secretary of War, Lincoln became an original member of The Society of the Cincinnati of the state of Massachusetts and was elected as the first president of the Massachusetts Society on June 9, 1783. After the war, Lincoln was active in politics in his native Massachusetts, running several times for lieutenant governor but only winning one term in that office. In 1787, Lincoln led a militia army (privately funded by Massachusetts merchants) in the suppression of Shays's Rebellion, and was a strong supporter of the new United States Constitution. He was for many of his later years the politically influential customs collector of the Port of Boston.

Béla Linder (Majs, 10 February 1876 – Belgrade, 15 April 1962), Hungarian colonel of artillery, Secretary of War of Mihály Károlyi government, minister without portfolio of Dénes Berinkey government, military attaché of Hungarian Soviet Republic based in Vienna, finally the mayor of Pécs during the period of Serb occupation.