Intelligence Agency (CIA), an independent United States Air Force (USAF), three civilian military department heads and the National Military Establishment, a unified command with a cabinet-level Secretary of Defense to oversee the service departments and the JCS. The Act left the Navy with the autonomy it sought, and control of its own Naval and Marine Corps Aviation, effectively legitimizing four military air forces. The act appeared to end the debate, although none of the services was completely happy with it. Forrestal, a former naval aviator who had led the fight against unification, was appointed the first Secretary of Defense; John L. Sullivan, formerly the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (AIR) succeeded him as Secretary of the Navy; Kenneth C. Royall, the Under Secretary of War, became the Secretary of the Army; and Stuart Symington, who had been the Assistant Secretary of War for Air, became the first Secretary of the Air Force. As the Navy had wanted, the Secretary of Defense had a coordination role and lacked the authority and resources to exercise effective control over service departments and their chiefs. Forrestal hoped that with unification accomplished, the services would set aside their parochial differences. Budgets and strategy Following the end of World War II, the United States Government was concerned about the large deficit spending that had been necessary for the war effort, which reached 119 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 1946. Deficit spending had lifted the United States out of the Great Depression, but now Truman and his economic advisors were concerned about the prospect of inflation, which rose to 14.4 percent in 1947 after wartime price controls were removed, and embraced austerity. To reduce expenditures, the armed services had to quickly demobilize and return to a peacetime military. Defense budgets declined from $81 billion in fiscal year 1945 (equivalent to $ billion in ) to $9 billion in fiscal year 1948 (equivalent to $ billion in ), representing a decline from 37.5 percent of GDP to 3.5 percent. The services were reduced from 89 army and 6 marine divisions to 12; from 213 air groups to 63 (only 11 of which were operational, with some existing only on paper); and from 1,166 warships to 343. Meanwhile, $13 billion went into the Marshall Plan, from 1948 to 1952. US war plans were drafted for a potential conflict with the Soviet Union. It was considered unlikely