President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947. The act reorganized foreign policy authority and the Armed Forces, merging the War and Navy departments to create a unified Department of Defense. It also created the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council.
The National Security Council issued the classified report NSC-68, which outlined a plan that would shape American Cold War policy for years to come. It advocated the worldwide containment of Communism and major rearmament. The report emphasized the need for an American commitment to fighting Communism globally, not just in Europe, and pointed to military intervention as the most effective form of containment.
Members of the CIA and the National Security Council, including several top-level Reagan advisers, were tried and found guilty of violating the Boland Amendment and other federal laws in order to support and arm the anti-Communist rebel Contras in Nicaragua without Congress’s knowledge. Though Reagan claimed no direct involvement in a secret plan to arm the Contras using profits made from arms sold to Iran, the Iran-Contra affair blemished the President’s administration.
The National Security Council was created in 1947 and charged with coordinating American defense and strategic policies. It is composed of the president, vice president, and four Cabinet members.
The contras were a counterrevolutionary force aligned against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, which had overthrown the previous dictatorial government in 1979. The contras received training and funds from the American CIA under Reagan’s administration in the early 1980s, even though Congress had banned such aid with the 1984 Boland Amendment. The National Security Council diverted money and support to the contras through secret weapons’ sales to Iran. The Iran-Contra Affair was uncovered in 1986 and a public outcry ensued. Several high-...