How Much Is Enough?

Abstract The formulation of any national security strategy premised on the long haul approach required an informed and systematic review of the threat assessment, defense plans, forces, and budget inherited from Truman. For this purpose, Eisenhower had distributed to the statutory members of the NSC and others whom Eisenhower intended to include in strategic planning summaries of each existing statement of basic national security policy. The summaries, explained NSC Executive Secretary James Lay in his covering memorandum, had “no official standing.” Rather, they were solely “for the personal use of the recipients in preparing for and engaging in discussions at Council meetings.” Accompanying the summaries, moreover, was a memorandum with an array of “major questions” the president’s advisors would be asked to examine over the course of these discussions. They did not, Lay’s memorandum read, “indicate any proposed policies.” They did indicate, however, the basis on which policies should-and would-be proposed.