ON NATIONAL SECURITY
FROM TRUMAN TO CLINTON
From the Marshall Plan to the Iran-Contra Affair, foreign policy continues to be intricate, multifaceted
and controversial. Entire presidential campaigns are built around national security Presidential scorecards are
tallied on the effect of an administration's foreign policy.
Presidential Directives on National Security From Truman to Clinton provides a unique collection of documents pertaining to
all aspects of U.S. national security policy---foreign, defense, intelligence,
and international economic policy--and structure. The collection consists of over 2,100 documents totaling 30,855 pages, and
covers all administrations from Truman to Clinton.
The documents from the Truman and Eisenhower administrations are National Security Council (NSC) policy papers,
which generally combined a study of a particular subject with policy recommendations. These papers were often
accepted in their original form to become the basis for policy, or were sent back by the NSC for revision.
A less formal system was introduced in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, which instituted the
National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) series of documents. NSAMs included instructions to government
departments or requests for studies, and the subject matter covered a range of topics from the Cuban missile crisis to the
construction of an embassy in Dublin.
The Nixon and Ford administrations established two parallel and interacting series of documents. Study directives
(National Security Decision Memoranda, NSDM) commissioned either the NSC or government agencies to perform studies to
serve as aids to decision making. Decision directives (National Security Decision Study Memoranda, NSSM) announced policy
decisions, but might also ask for studies and reports.
The system put in place during the Nixon administration has served as the model for all subsequent presidencies.
The predominant source of documents in the collection is the National Security Council--the issuing agency for the
Truman-Eisenhower policy papers, as well as the Kennedy NSAMs and decision and study directives of subsequent
administrations. Sources for o
ther studies and implementing documents include a wide range of government agencies, such as the Departments of State,
Defense, and Justice; the Central Intelligence Agency; and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In addition to obtaining copies of Truman and Eisenhower papers from the National Archives and the relevant
presidential libraries, the Archive has requested through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) all Kennedy and Johnson
NSAMs, as well as all decision and study memoranda issued by subsequent administrations. It has also requested every study
conducted in response to
those memoranda. All documents that could be identified as implementing documents have also been requested.
The Presidential Directives on National Security collection represents an indispensable resource for every researcher and
scholar in the fields of government, the presidency,
national security decision making, and post-war U.S. foreign, defense and economic policies.
The documents included constitute the most complete available record of presidential statements of policy on the critical issues facing the United States. This collection contains every presidential directive on national security from Truman to Clinton that has been declassified, as well as the widest possible range of studies contributing to these highest-level declarations.
Adding to the historical importance of these materials is the fact that they were intended to be internal documents for use only by the federal agencies and officials to whom they were addressed, and not for dissemination to the public or even Congress. Presidents have utilized the classified directives, many of which are top secret, as a primary means of defining and executing national security policy--and have vigorously rejected Congressional demands to review them. These top-level documents reflect actual presidential intentions, as opposed to public statements of purpose, which frequently leave out sensitive details and, on occasion, directly conflict with the stated goals of the administration.
Particular sets of issues such as U.S.-Soviet relations, U.S. non-proliferation policy, civil defense, U.S. Policy towards Asia,
and nuclear issues can be studied within a particular administration or across all ten administrations. This makes it possible
for a researcher to follow the evolution of a policy in detail. Alternatively, the entire range of national security
decision-making, and international economic policies can be studied for a single administration, providing a sense of the
president's priorities as well as the course he chose to follow on each issue.
The following charts provide information on the nature of the document set, listing the number of documents by presidential
administration and document series:
| Administration | Number of Documents |
|---|---|
| Truman/Eisenhower | 629 |
| Kennedy/Johnson | 548 |
| Nixon/Ford | 337 |
| Carter | 83 |
| Reagan | 533 |
| Bush | 24 |
| Clinton | 4 |
| Documents | Series Number of Directives and Related Documents: |
|---|---|
| National Security Council (NSC) | 629 |
| National Security Action Memoranda (NSAM) | 548 |
| National Security Decision Memoranda (NSDM) | 150 |
| National Security Study Memoranda (NSSM) | 187 |
| Presidential Directive (PD) | 33 |
| Presidential Review Memoranda (PRM) | 50 |
| National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) | 502 |
| National Security Study Directive (NSSD) | 31 |
| National Security Directive (NSD) | 19 |
| National Security Council Report (NSCR) | 5 |
| Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) | 2 |
| Presidential Review Directive (PRD) | 2 |
Reproduces on microfiche 2,158 documents totaling 19,000 pages.
The microfiche are divided into two segments: documents from the Truman and Eisenhower administrations and documents from the Kennedy through Clinton administrations. For ease of use, the unique identification numbers assigned to documents are printed in eye-legible type at the top right hand corner and precede each document on the microfiche.
A printed guide and index totaling 828 pages accompanies the microfiche collection. The Guide contains an essay on National Security Policy and Presidential Directives; events chronology; glossaries of names, organizations, technical terms, acronyms and abbreviations; a bibliography; and a catalog of documents. The set contains two indexes: the Creator and Recipient Index, and the Keyword Index. Both are arranged alphabetically and both provide in-depth, document-level access to subjects, individuals, and organizations.