Short answers, pulled from the story.
NSC 68 is the short name for United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, a 66-page top secret policy paper drafted by the Department of State and Department of Defense. It was presented to President Harry S. Truman on the 7th of April 1950 and analyzed U.S. and Soviet capabilities from military, economic, political, and psychological standpoints.
NSC 68 was produced by a State-Defense Policy Review Group chaired by Paul Nitze of the State Department. Its members included Dean Acheson, Charles E. Bohlen, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett.
NSC 68 was presented to President Truman on the 7th of April 1950. He forwarded it to the National Security Council for further consideration on the 12th of April 1950.
Truman did not support NSC 68 when it first reached him because he felt it was not specific about which programs would change and that it clashed with his existing defense spending limits. He sent it back for further review and did not approve it until 1951.
The Korean War, which began when North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel on the 25th of June 1950, gave NSC 68 new importance after months of little progress on the report. Dean Acheson later said Korea "created the stimulus which made action."
NSC 68 called for roughly tripling U.S. defense spending, to $40 or $50 billion a year, up from about $13 billion set for 1950. Between 1950 and 1953, the Truman administration nearly tripled defense spending as a share of gross domestic product, from 5 to 14.2 percent.