ABSTRACT
The ability of the executive branch to achieve its national security policy objectives has always been subject to some domestic political constraints. Based more on accepted practice than on law, control of national security policy devolved to the president and career officials in the bureaucracies of the executive branch. The power of the national security bureaucracies resides in their day-to-day control over the foreign operation of the US government. The central thrust of legislation, recruitment, and socialization has been to produce a corps of professionals who can make important decisions unencumbered by the need to satisfy the demands of any constituency in the domestic political environment. Beginning with the Vietnam war, more and more foreign and military policy issues have become topics of widespread domestic political debate, and more and more actors outside the executive branch have sought roles in determining policy.
