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A Look Back … The National Security Act of 1947
President Harry S. Truman signed the
National Security Act of 1947 (P.L. 80-235, 61 Stat 496) on July 26, 1947. The
act – an intricate series of compromises – took well over a year to craft. It
remained the charter of the U.S.
national security establishment until significantly altered with the passage of
the National Security Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of
December 2004, which created the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence.
This landmark
legislation reorganized and modernized the US armed forces, foreign policy,
and the Intelligence Community apparatus. It directed a major reorganization of
the foreign policy and military establishments of the US government. And
it created many of the institutions that US presidents would find useful when
formulating and implementing foreign policy.
A Brief Overview of the Act
The act:
- Established
the National Security Council (NSC)
- Merged
the War and Navy departments into the National Military Establishment (NME)
headed by the secretary of defense, and
- Recognized
the US Air Force as an independent service from the Army.
Initially each of the three service secretaries maintained
quasi-cabinet status, but the act was amended on August 10, 1949 to formalize
their subordination to the secretary of defense. At the same time the NME was
renamed the Department of Defense.
In the intelligence field, the act ratified President Truman's creation (in
1946) of the post of Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and transformed
the Central Intelligence Group into the statutory Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), the nation’s first peacetime intelligence agency.
Most of these
provisions prompted sharp debates in the Executive Branch and Congress. Several
compromises were struck in order for the act to win passage. These compromises
would have far-reaching implications for the Intelligence Community.
President Truman’s Goals:
Unify the Armed
Services & Reform Intelligence
President Truman's main goal in
guiding this legislation through Congress was to modernize the nation's
"antiquated defense setup" by unifying the armed services under a
civilian chief. Intelligence reform was a secondary goal, and the White House
kept the bill's passages on intelligence as brief as possible to ensure that
its details did not hamper prospects for military unification. This tactic
almost backfired.
When the
president sent his bill forward in February 1947, the brevity of its
intelligence provisions caused Congressional scrutiny. More than a few members
of Congress read the bill with concerns about its proposed concentration of
military power.
They also eventually
debated almost every word of its bill's intelligence section. Some members
argued that the DCI and the new CIA could become a menace to civil
liberties--an "American Gestapo." Administration witnesses alleviated
this concern by reminding Congress that the Agency's authorized mission would
be foreign intelligence.
The Act Establishes the Role for CIA
When lawmakers finished editing the section on intelligence, however, the
language managed to summarize and ratify most of the crucial arrangements
already made by the Truman administration. The National Security Act would:
- authorize
a Central Intelligence Agency (but leave the powers and duties of the Agency's
head for a separate bill to enumerate);
- that
CIA would be an independent agency under the supervision of the NSC;
- that CIA
would conduct both analysis and
clandestine activities, but would have no policymaking role and no law
enforcement powers;
- and,
finally, that the DCI would be confirmed by the Senate and could be either a
civilian or an officer on detail from his home service.
The legislation gave America something new; no other
nation had structured its foreign intelligence establishment in quite the same
way.
The CIA would be an independent, central agency, overseeing
strategic analysis and coordinating clandestine activities abroad. It would not
be a controlling agency. The CIA would both rival and complement the efforts of
the departmental intelligence organizations. This prescription of coordination
without control guaranteed competition as the CIA and the departmental agencies
pursued common targets, but it also fostered a healthy exchange of views and
abilities.
What the act did not do, however, was almost as important as what it did. It
helped ensure that American intelligence remained a loose confederation of
agencies lacking strong direction from either civilian or military
decisionmakers. President Truman had endorsed the Army and Navy view that
"every department required its own intelligence." The National
Security Act left this concession in tact. Only later would the Defense
Intelligence Agency be created to coordinate military intelligence.
Separation Between Foreign & Domestic
Intelligence
The act also made
a crucial concession to members concerned about threats to civil liberties. It
drew a bright line between foreign and domestic intelligence and assigning
these realms, in effect, to the CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
respectively. The CIA, furthermore, would have no "police, subpoena, or
law enforcement powers," according to the act.
The importance of the National Security Act cannot be overstated. It was a
central document in U.S. Cold War policy and reflected the nation’s acceptance
of its position as a world leader.
Posted: Jul 31, 2008 10:37 AM
Last Updated: Jul 31, 2008 12:18 PM
Last Reviewed: Jul 31, 2008 10:37 AM