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Encyclopedia entry: National Security Council Document #68
- Article from:
- The Oxford Companion to United States History
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Copyright© The Oxford Companion to United States History 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information)
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National Security Council Document #68
(1950), officially titled “U.S. Objectives and Programs for National Security,” the quintessential policy document of the
Cold War
.The final victory of the Chinese communists, the detonation of an atomic bomb by the Soviet Union in the Fall of 1949, and the prospect of developing a hydrogen bomb convinced President Harry S.
Truman
and Secretary of State Dean
Acheson
of the need for a reevaluation of U.S. national security objectives. In January 1950, Paul Nitze, director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff, assembled a small group from the State and Defense Departments to formulate a policy paper for this evaluation. By ...