5. Editorial Note

NSC 68, “United States Objectives and Programs for National Security,” April 14, 1950, is printed in Foreign Relations, 1950, volume I, pages 234292. The National Security Council adopted NSC 68 on April 25, but President Truman did not approve it until September 30. The paper envisioned, among other things, a dramatic increase in defense spending, particularly in the form of covert action operations directed against the Soviet Union and its satellites. For subsequent papers in the NSC 68 series and related documentation, see the compilation on national security policy, ibid., 1951, volume I.