Page:CRS Report 98-611.djvu/10

 CRS-10 paper, approving no fewer than 18 revamped policies during Eisenhower’s last month in office.

National Security Action Memoranda.

During the Presidency of John F. Kennedy, NSC policy papers were superseded by a new type of instrument denominated National Security Action Memoranda (NSAM). Their generation began with a Cabinet official or a senior presidential assistant. This manager coordinated development of a draft position paper with other responsible individuals, often through the use of ad hoc interdepartmental working groups. Fiscal considerations were integrated into the body of the document and no longer appeared in a separate “financial appendix.” Discussion of and debate over the final text continued all the way to and into the Oval Office. Once the President approved the recommendations of the position paper, his decision was recorded by responsible agency or NSC staff in a brief NSAM. President Lyndon B. Johnson largely continued these arrangements, and approximately 370 NSAMs were produced during the Kennedy-Johnson years.

National Security Study Memoranda and National Security Decision Memoranda.

When Richard Nixon became President, he appointed Henry Kissinger as his national security adviser. Kissinger recruited a substantial and influential NSC staff, and they produced national security position papers which were designated National Security Study Memoranda (NSSM). They were developed through the use of various interdepartmental working groups composed of high level representatives from pertinent agencies. Beginning with a study answering 26 questions on Vietnam, multiple NSSMs were immediately assigned. During his first hundred days, Kissinger reportedly called for the preparation of 55 such study memoranda, with a total of 85 inaugurated in 1969, another 26 initiated in 1970, and 27 apportioned during the first nine months of 1971.

The NSSMs were among the resources used by the President when determining national security policy, which he would express in National Security Decision Memoranda (NSDM). However, according to a Kissinger biographer, “the most important decisions were made without informing the bureaucracy, and without the use of NSSMs or NSDMs.” Both types of instruments continued to be produced