<Li> Introduced in the Senate as S. 758 by John Gurney (R--SD) on March 3, 1947 </Li> <Li> Signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on July 26, 1947 </Li> <P> The National Security Act of 1947 was a major restructuring of the United States government's military and intelligence agencies following World War II . The majority of the provisions of the Act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense . </P> <P> The Act merged the Department of War (renamed as the Department of the Army) and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment (NME), headed by the Secretary of Defense . It also created the Department of the Air Force and the United States Air Force, which separated the Army Air Forces into its own service . It also protected the Marine Corps as an independent service, under the Department of the Navy . </P>

What was the purpose of the national security act of 1947 apex