ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the mechanism that has been available to post-World War II presidents—the National Security Council (NSC), provided by legislation in 1947—and the ways in which postwar presidents have used it. The National Security Act of 1947 created a single Department of Defense, with subordinate departments reporting to the president through a secretary of defense. The assistant to the president for national security affairs has therefore assumed leadership of the NSC staff. Truman was at first reluctant to use the NSC for decisionmaking purposes, preferring to bring together many advisers—both civilian and military—whenever a foreign policy crisis arose. In general, Truman preferred to let the State Department formulate broad national security policy, so the NSC staff remained small and primarily served to facilitate the flow of information from the departments to the president. The interdepartmental groups were retained with one change: the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs chaired the group dealing with politico-military affairs.
