ABSTRACT
This chapter examines causes and consequences of the dramatic restructuring of national security policy-making processes in the post- Dwight D. Eisenhower's era on the premise that the systematic, and department oriented approach to policy-making utilized by Eisenhower offered many advantages over the informal, ad hoc, and White House–centered approach to policy-making that followed. The Senator also wondered if the NSC under Eisenhower's leadership had prepared a paper analyzing alternative means by which the United States could support and finance an increased defense program. The election of John F. Kennedy to the Presidency in November 1960 marked the beginning of the end of the highly organized and institutionalized National Security Council apparatus that had flourished under Eisenhower's leadership. Since the Special Assistant has direct access to the President, an NSC staff operation of the kind suggested would tend to intervene between the President and his Cabinet members, who are responsible to him for executing his policies.
