Trump’s ‘War Department’ faces first big test in the Far East 

President Trump’s decision to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War seems to conflict with his boast to have resolved up to seven different wars in his campaign to win a Nobel Peace Prize. The name change actually changes nothing in the U.S. defense posture, but it does fortify the image that Trump would like to convey of an incredibly strong American military machine — so strong that no foreign leader would dare to challenge it. The stronger the United States appears militarily, the less likely any foreign power would doubt American supremacy. Peace, then, according to this logic, will prevail. 

So far, however, the United States has not had to respond militarily to the worst threats to peace — not in eastern Europe, despite the war in Ukraine, and not in the Middle East, as Israel goes on obliterating Gaza.  

The worst danger, however, is that of the three leaders who sat side by side at the great “Victory Day” parade in Beijing: the host, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and his top two guests, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un. The fact that Xi placed Kim in such a place of honor showed China’s enduring support of the same regime that it rushed to defend in the Korean War.  

The man who ruled China then, Mao Zedong, had just completed the takeover of the Chinese mainland by his Red Army. Xi, by far the strongest Chinese leader since the era of Maoist rule, is fully capable of supporting Kim in a second Korean War. Putin, the most enduring Russian leader since Joseph Stalin, would almost certainly ally with Xi, as did Mao and Stalin. Kim, having sent about 15,000 troops along with thousands of artillery shells and other weaponry to Russia to support its campaign in Ukraine, counts on Moscow to support him as in the first Korean War, after Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, installed by the Russians in 1945, decided to invade South Korea five years later. 

All that’s holding the Chinese, Russians and North Koreans back right now is the fear of a regional war in which they would risk heavy losses without much of a chance of winning. Trump, for all the big talk from him and “War Department” Secretary Pete Hegseth, has so far shown no sign of strengthening America’s defenses in the region. Rather, he has appeared inclined to weaken U.S. treaties with South Korea and Japan, talking of his “love” for Kim, with whom he believes he might be able to arrange yet another meeting in the near future.  

But Kim does not “need” Trump as he did in 2018 and 2019 when he agreed to two summits. The first of the two, in Singapore, wound up with a vapid statement that clearly did nothing to advance the American demand for the North to give up its nuclear program, and the second, in Hanoi, ended disastrously when Trump cut off dialogue after Kim made clear he would keep his nukes and missiles. With Xi and Putin now totally on his side, Kim can afford to ignore Trump’s entreaties for a meaningless talkfest that almost certainly would produce no substantive results. Why should he bother? 

The lines in east Asia, after the Beijing victory show featuring its military might, are now drawn more sharply than ever. Facing the two giant powers and their enthusiastic protectorate, the United States counts on Japan, a sleeping giant with a numerically small number of men and women under arms but a technologically advanced military establishment, and South Korea, a major arms exporter. Moving down the island chain, Taiwan and the Philippines also face China in separate standoffs in which unrelenting U.S. support is needed if they are to survive. South Korea, always fearful of upsetting China, its greatest trading partner, wants no part of the defense of either of them, but Japan sees their freedom and independence as vital to regional security.  

The wild card, as usual, is Trump. Priding himself as a man of peace, he’s talked about reducing the number of American troops in both Korea and Japan while bargaining for both countries to contribute more toward the costs of American defense. If renaming the Department of Defense is to mean anything, he may eventually have to demonstrate America’s vaunted military might in a region where conflict, once it begins, would be far bloodier than what are still “limited wars” confined to Gaza and Ukraine.  

Donald Kirk has been a journalist for more than 60 years, focusing much of his career on conflict in Asia and the Middle East, including as a correspondent for the Washington Star and Chicago Tribune. He is currently a freelance correspondent covering North and South Korea, and is the author of several books about Asian affairs.