Policy Planning Staff Files
Memorandum by the Deputy Director of the Policy Planning Staff (Butler)1
top secret
[Washington,] December 13, 1950.
NSC 68/32
(NSC Meeting, Dec. 14, 1950)
The President has approved the conclusions of NSC 68 as a statement of policy to be followed over the next four or five years. The present report is in response to the President’s request for further information regarding the implications of those conclusions and the programs envisaged by them.
Some of the important considerations brought out in the present report are:
- 1.
- The aggressive action of the U.S.S.R. and its satellites and the disparity in military power between them and the United States and [Page 467] its allies represent a great danger to the security of the United States, and the period of greatest danger is directly before us.
- 2.
- Our most urgent need is a rapid build-up of U.S. military strength. An interim program to be initiated immediately should be to attain by June 1952 the force targets previously fixed for June 1954. Furthermore, these force targets should be kept under review to determine if they are sufficient to (a) protect us against disaster, and (b) support our foreign policy.
- 3.
- The programs and estimates of their cost are tentative. They indicate the magnitude of the effort, but they must be brought into balance and kept adjusted to changing situations by a process of continuous review. The present estimates represent for our economy an effort about half-way between “business as usual” and a really large-scale dedication of our enormous economic resources to the defense of our freedom.
- 4.
- The essential requirement is united and vigorous national action now to transform our potential strength into strength in being. Approval and immediate and continuous implementation of the present report and its annexes will give us a start on this task.