National Security Act of 1947

National Security Act of 1947. This measure, signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on 26 July 1947, created four new coordinating agencies: the National Military Establishment, directed by a secretary of defense; a National Security Resources Board to ensure preparedness for a future war; a National Security Council to advise the president on national security policy; and a director of central intelligence to coordinate the military and civilian intelligence services.The 1947 act reflected the experience of World War II and the subsequent recognition that the institutions shaping American strategic and foreign policy were inadequate for a global power. It originated in President Truman's determination to unify the armed forces before the outbreak of another war. Truman was strongly supported in this effort by General George Marshall and vehemently opposed by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal (1892–1949), whose objections were fueled by the suspicions that, given the Soviet Union's massive land army, a unified U.S. armed services would be dominated by the army to the detriment of the navy.

But Forrestal also viewed the Soviet Union as a dangerous antagonist and was therefore determined to add a military and intelligence component to American foreign policy, to coordinate means and ends. Seeking a more comprehensive alternative to the army plan, Forrestal commissioned a study to recommend a new national security process. As a result, Forrestal became a major architect of the act.

Debate over the proposed National Security Act continued for two years because of intense opposition within the navy, and among its congressional supporters, to unification of the military services. Disagreements also arose over the position of the director of central intelligence and the agency that would support that position: Military intelligence agencies maneuvered to maintain their own autonomy, and the State Department sought to control the proposed new intelligence agency. In addition, President Truman and his advisers opposed the creation of a statutory National Security Council and worked to weaken what they saw as a threat to the independence of the presidency.

The act that emerged was, consequently, the result of a series of compromises. With the help of congressional supporters, for example, Forrestal weakened the authority of the secretary of defense, thereby undercutting the attempts at unity and enhancing, he hoped, the position of the navy.

In 1949 amendments to the act finally created a Department of Defense that diminished the power of the civilian service secretaries and strengthened the position of the secretary of defense. The amendments also removed the service secretaries from the National Security Council, thus augmenting the State Department's influence within the council.

In the following decade, both the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency grew into formidable agencies; the National Security Resources Board expired; and the Department of Defense, seeking an elusive unity, periodically reorganized itself. The National Security Act created the basic structure of U.S. strategic and foreign policy decision‐making in the Cold War. It was one of the most significant pieces of legislation passed in the second half of the twentieth century.
See also Federal Government, Executive Branch: Department of Defense; Federal Government, Executive Branch: Department of State; Federal Government, Executive Branch: The Presidency; Joint Chiefs of Staff; Military, The.

Bibliography

Demetrios Caraley , The Politics of Military Unification: A Study of Conflict and the Policy Process, 1966.
Charles E. Neu , The Rise of the National Security Bureaucracy, in The New American State, ed. Louis Galambos, 1987, pp. 85–108.

Anna Kasten Nelson