The Growth of American Power Through Cold and Hot Wars 315Using the Military as an Economic Program
As the U.S. faced global crises–in Berlin, China, Korea, and elsewhere–it was
still developing its economic program for global power. And in 1950, to a
greater degree than before, the government began to combine its program for
military strength with its plans for economic power–and that occurred because
of a document called NSC- 68. The National Security Council had been told
to analyze U.S. Cold War policy and produced this paper, its 68th publication
[hence NSC-68] in the spring of 1950, not long before the Korean War began.
Although government officials knew about NSC-68, it did not become public
until the 1970s, but its importance was already understood by then. NSC-68
had two main points, one which has gotten most of the attention and the
other less discussed but, in the long run, more important. First, this document
starkly described the global conflict at the time. It described the U.S. as a
FIGuRE 6-6 u.S. infantrymen take cover from exploding mortar shells near
the Hantan River in central Korea, 1951