ABSTRACT
President Kennedy reverted to the NSC-68 type emphasis upon conventional forces and, implicitly at least, recognized the importance of mobilization. President Johnson elected not to mobilize for the Vietnam conflict which was attracting growing public exposition. The National Security Act of 1947, which established the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Defense provided for a National Security Resources Board at the White House level to bring resource considerations into strategy and force planning and to correct deficiencies in defense preparedness. Recalling the US budget "gap" of at least a half a trillion dollars noted earlier, NATO's Central Region countries face comparable mismatches between requirements and politically available resources.
