"What is good for the country is good for General Motors and vice versa." —Charles E. Wilson (July 18, 1890 - September 26, 1961) in 1953

In 1919 Wilson moved to Remy Electric, a General Motors subsidiary, as chief engineer and sales manager. By January 1941 he was the president of General Motors. During World War II, Wilson directed the company's huge defense production effort, which earned him a U.S. Medal of Merit in 1946. In 1944, as the director of the War Production Board, he told the Army Ordinance Board that in order to prevent a return to the Great Depression, the United States needed "a permanent war economy." This permanent war economy would evolve into the modern military-industrial complex. He was still head of General Motors when President Eisenhower selected him as Secretary of Defense in January 1953.

Both Wilson and Eisenhower entered office committed to reorganizing the Department of Defense. They succeeded in securing from Congress approval in June 1953 of Reorganization Plan No. 6, which made changes in OSD, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the chain of command. Wilson welcomed the reorganization plan, which became effective on 30 June 1953, as facilitating more efficient management of the Department of Defense. He looked on the assistant secretaries as his "vice presidents" and tried to run the Pentagon like an industrial corporation. Wilson took advantage of the reorganization to decentralize administration, giving the service secretaries more responsibility and importance. In his first annual report, he noted that the service secretaries were his principal assistants; decentralizing operational responsibility to them would make for effective exercise of civilian authority throughout DoD.