Table Of ContentKEEPERS OF
THE KEYS
ALSO BY JOHN PRADOS
The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Intelligence Analysis
and Russian Military Strength
The Sky Would Fall: Operation Vulture: The U.S.
Bombing Mission in Indochina, 1954
The Presidents’ Secret Wars: CIA and Pentagon
Covert Operations Since World War II
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KEEPERS OF
THE KEYS
A H
istory of the
N S C
ational ecurity ouncil
T B
from ruman to ush
John Prados
William Morrow and Company, Inc.
New York
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Copyright © 1991 by John Prados
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Inquiries should
be addressed to Permissions Department, William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1350 Avenue
of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10019.
It is the policy of William Morrow and Company, Inc., and its imprints and affiliates, rec
ognizing the importance of preserving what has been written, to print the books we publish
on acid-free paper, and we exert our best efforts to that end.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Prados, John.
Keepers of the keys : a history of the National Security Council
from Truman to Bush / John Prados,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-688-07397-2
1. National Security Council (U.S.)—History. 2. United States
National security—History—20th century. I. Title.
UA23.15.P73 1991
353.0089—dc20 90-26244
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
BOOK DESIGN BY M ’N O PRODUCTION SERVICES, INC.
To
Jill
with
Love
FOREWORD
Presidential power lies at the heart
of every aspect of American government. In foreign and defense
policy, so-called national security, presidential power resides in the
National Security Council, or NSC. Yet for all the many, many books
and other studies on aspects of American national security since
World War II, hardly any have focused on the National Security
Council as an expression of presidential power, or on the role of the
national security adviser, the President’s first lieutenant for defense
and foreign policy. Historians and political scientists have looked at
Presidents and their secretaries of state, at Presidents and their sec
retaries of defense, at Presidents and their personal staffs. National
security advisers are largely neglected.
For a moment in time it seemed that the Iran-Contra affair might
change all that. Here was a case in which grave flaws in standing
procedures were revealed precisely within the staff of the NSC, and
in which the quality of national security advice given to a President
was called into question. Three years later it is clear that the inquiries
resulting from the affair have followed the angles of controversy and
corruption, rather than examining fundamental issues.
This is the story of the National Security Council, of the national
security adviser, of his staff. It is a whale of a story, encompassing
the whole history of the cold war and United States defense policy,
of war in Vietnam and arms control, of Washington bureaucracies
and personal frustrations. Such flamboyant advisers as Henry Kis-
FOREWORD
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singer and Zbigniew Brzezinski are here, but so are some of their
subordinates, the NSC staff, the people who really make the system
work. Beyond individuals, this is the story of the rise of an institution,
the NSC staff, which has acquired power rivaling that of Cabinet
officers, diplomats, and generals.
This is not a book on national security per se, or the philosophy
of the national security state. As the cold war recedes, the philosophy
of national security must lose much of the vitality it once possessed.
Whatever the temperature of international relations, however, this
nation still faces the need to integrate its defense and foreign policies,
a need ever more acute as available resources become increasingly
limited. The National Security Council and staff is the mechanism
for achieving that integration. A practical study of where the NSC
came from and what it has done seems especially timely.
An abundance of material rather than its paucity has been a prob
lem in writing this book. Numerous declassified documents are avail
able for the administrations up to Nixon’s, and even there the record
is beginning to open.
For the most recent, Reagan years, the Iran-Contra affair has gen
erated an avalanche of declassifications and revelations that scholars
will no doubt labor for many years to interpret. This record has been
supplemented by congressional documents and hearings, interviews,
oral histories, memoirs, and the voluminous literature on the crises
with which the NSC has had to deal.
Despite its length, my account has had to pass lightly over many
incidents that merit more detailed treatment, and to avoid altogether
some slices of our postwar experience. Other historians will have to
offer the story of the NSC in Africa, or South Asia, or more detail
on relations with Europe and the Soviet Union.
I have tried to follow certain subjects through the different ad
ministrations nonetheless. One is the Vietnam War, which has been
the formative experience for the postwar generation that rose to
consciousness in the twilight of the cold war. A second is the NSC
in the Middle East. I have retained material on Lebanon and the
1967 and 1973 wars for comparison and contrast of NSC activity
FOREWORD
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at different times. An effort has been made to follow arms control
through the administrations, as well as United States relations with
the Third World in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Cuba, Af
rica, Iran, and elsewhere. Many of these subjects merit more space
than I can give them. No account of the NSC staff would be complete
without coverage of the Iran-Contra mess, but so much has been and
will be written here that I have deliberately avoided going into great
detail, and have also attempted to bring out aspects of the scandal
thus far ignored.
This is a story of people, not simply events, and I have tried to
sketch various characters who have figured in the NSC’s history.
There are, of course, many individuals important to the NSC story
who have been left out.
This book would have been impossible but for the help, friendship,
cooperation, and assistance of many people. First I thank those who
agreed to be interviewed, both on the record and off. Thanks also
to the helpful librarians and staffs of the Library of Congress, Co
lumbia University libraries, New York Public Library, Martin Luther
King Library, and Wheaton Regional Library of Montgomery
County. Providing invaluable assistance were staffs and archivists at
the National Archives, Diplomatic Branch; the Harry S. Truman
Library; the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library; the John F. Kennedy
Library; the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library; the Nixon Library Proj
ect and the National Security Archive. Audio-visual archivists at these
facilities as well as at the Gerald R. Ford Library and Jimmy Carter
Library, furnished prompt and courteous service. Particular thanks
go to archivists Herbert Pankratz at the Eisenhower Library and
David C. Humphrey at the Johnson Library. Individuals who gave
generous help and assistance include Gordon Adams, Scott Arm
strong, Gunter Bischof, Larry Bowers, Laurence J. Chang, David
Corn, Roger V. Dingman, William Geissler, Lenny Glynn, Frank
Greve, Judith Henchy, George McTurnan Kahin, William H. Kin-
cade, Abbot and William Kominers, Stephen M. Katz, Robert K.
Manoff, Mark Perry, D. Gareth Porter, Thomas Powers, Joseph Pra
dos, Ann Sierakowski, and Dan and Ellen Wasserman. These people
FOREWORD
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and institutions contributed much to what is good in what follows,
but I alone am responsible for the errors and oversights.
—John Prados
Washington, D.C.
