Why Was NSC 68 Written?
The most serious problem with the argument that the events of 1949 created a sense of crisis within the administration is that they were followed by a decision to cut the military budget. This reduction was originally proposed by Frank Pace, the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, and presented to the cabinet by the president on 1 July 1949.17 Afterwards, the NSC undertook a study of the effects of these cuts. This study and the responses to it, which became the NSC 52 series, were discussed by the Council and approved by the president on 30 September 1949, just one week after Truman publicly announced the detection of the Soviet atomic test.18 Although the State Department objected to cuts in the newly approved Military Defense Assistance Program, the budget the president sent to Congress in January 1950 contained nearly all the reductions Pace had originally recommended, including a smaller military budget. Truman’s refusal to increase the military budget in 1949 suggests that he s
