IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA MF 82-84; MF 283-285
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: Microform: Minutes of Meetings of the National Security Council, with Special Advisory Reports
Date(s): 1947-1960, 1982
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 2 reels
Name of creator(s): The National Security Council of the United States, 1947-1960
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The National Security Act of 1947 and the Reorganization Plan of 1949 defined the composition and function of the National Security Council (NSC). Chaired by the President of the United States, the NSC consisted of statutory members (the Vice President and the secretaries of State and Defense), statutory advisers (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency), the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and professional staff members on temporary assignment from the armed forces, the Central Intelligence Agency, elsewhere in the government, or who had been recruited from universities and think tanks. The statutory function of the NSC was, and is, to advise the President with respect to the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to national security. Since 1947 the NSC has evolved as a key foreign policy making arm of the president under such advisers as McGeorge Bundy, Dr Henry Alfred Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. During the administrations of Harry S Truman and Dwight David Eisenhower, 1945-1953 and 1953 to 1961 respectively, the NSC met to analyse current and potential national security issues, and to formulate for the President Special Advisory reports. Special Advisory Reports were prepared by NSC staff to study specific national security issues or perceived threats to the security of the United States or to assess the domestic and political situation of individual nations. When completed, these reports were distributed to the entire National Security Council for study and comment, and were then were delivered to the President of the United States for action.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Minutes of Meetings of the National Security Council, with Special Advisory Reports are microfilmed copies of meeting minutes and Special Advisory Reports undertaken by the US National Security Council, 1947-1960. Material in the collection relates to US strategic nuclear forces capabilities, 1947-60; US policy with respect to Japan, the Soviet Union, China, 1948-49; military assistance to non-communist nations, 1948-49; US policy on atomic warfare, 1948; the Berlin Blockade; the United Nations decision to introduce military forces to Palestine, 1948; US policy towards Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe, 1949; US courses of action with respect to the Republic of Korea, 1950-1953; responsibilities of the Central Intelligence Agency with respect to guerrilla warfare, 1952; US policy and courses of action to counter possible Soviet or satellite action against Berlin, 1952; US objectives and actions to exploit the unrest in the Soviet satellite states, 1953; US courses of action with respect to Latin America, Iran and South Asia, 1953-85; covert operations, 1954-75; nuclear attack warning channel and procedures for civilians, 1955-65; the political implications of Afro-Asian military take-overs, 1959; and US policy towards Cuba, 1959-60. Special Advisory Reports concern Europe, the Soviet Union and its satellites, Latin America, Japan, The Middle East, the People's Republic of China, South East Asia, Angola, North Africa, 1947-1960.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Arranged in chronological order.
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be provided for research use only. Enquiries concerning the copyright of the original material should be addressed to University Publications of America, Inc., 4520 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD, 20814-3389, USA
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Summary guide available on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and in hard copy in the Centre's reading room, Paul Kesaris and Robert Lester (eds.), Minutes of Meetings of the National Security Council, with Special Advisory Reports (University Publications of America, Inc, Bethesda, MD, 1982).
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
University Publications of America, Inc
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Further microfilmed papers created by the National Security Council may be found at LHCMA MF 71-81.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: Date of compilation:Oct 1999