— Ch. 1 · The Blueprint For Militarization —
NSC 68.
~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
A 66-page top secret policy paper titled United States Objectives and Programs for National Security arrived on President Harry S. Truman's desk on the 7th of April 1950. Paul H. Nitze, Director of Policy Planning for the Department of State, drafted the document under tight deadlines to address a rapidly shifting global landscape. The report described the international situation as momentous and involving the destruction of civilization itself if left unchecked. It became one of the most important American policy statements of the Cold War era. Scholar Ernest R. May later noted that NSC-68 provided the blueprint for the militarization of the Cold War from 1950 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The text advocated for a large expansion in the military budget and the development of a hydrogen bomb. It also called for increased military aid to allies of the United States while rejecting policies of détente.
Geopolitical Catalysts Of 1949
By 1950 U.S. national security policies required reexamination due to a series of specific events. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was operational and military assistance for European allies had begun. The Soviet Union had detonated an atomic bomb and communists had solidified their control of China. A British sterling-dollar crisis in the summer of 1949 brought home to U.S. officials that the Marshall Plan would not suffice by its scheduled end year of 1952. Western Europe faced the prospect of pursuing autarky similar to the 1930s with all attendant difficulties for the world economy. Similar economic problems were plaguing Japan at the same time. On the 31st of January 1950 President Truman directed the Department of State and Department of Defense to undertake a reexamination of objectives in peace and war. A State-Defense Policy Review Group was set up under the chairmanship of Paul Nitze to address these expanding threats.