Historically, the NSC’s importance has varied with the amount of
attention each president has given it. The Department of Statedom-
inated President Harry S. Truman’sNSC, while the military took
center stage in President Dwight D. Eisenhower’sNSC. President
John F. Kennedy, who preferred interpersonal groups for policy-
making, permitted the NSC advisor to take the leading role in coor-
dinating policy but largely ignored the rest of the NSC in policy mat-
ters, a course President Lyndon B. Johnsonpursued with greater
vigor than had President Kennedy.
Under Presidents Richard M. Nixonand Gerald R. Ford, Henry A.
Kissinger’sexpanded NSC acquired a great deal of influence. Dr.
Kissinger kept the important issues for himself and devolved the less
important to the Department of State and Department of Defense
(DOD). He also fed President Nixon’s desire for formal written exposi-
tions rather than interpersonal groupings. Dr. Kissinger at first at-
tempted to restore the separation between policymaking and implemen-
tation but eventually found himself personally performing both roles.
Under President Jimmy Carter, the national security advisor be-
came a principal source of foreign affairs ideas and the NSC staff was
recruited and managed with that in view. The Department of State took
the lead and provided institutional memory and served as operations
coordinator. The Ronald Reaganadministration, on the other hand,
emphasized a collegial approach to government decision making and
allowed the White House chief of staff to supercede the national secu-
rity advisor in coordinating national security and foreign policy.
President George H. W. Bushbrought his own considerable foreign
policy experience to the NSC, reorganized the council to include a Prin-
cipals Committee, Deputies Committee, and eight Policy Coordinat-
ing Committees. The NSC played an effective role during such major
developments as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unification of
Germany, and the deployment of American troops in Iraq and Panama.
The William J. Clintonadministration continued to emphasize a
collegial approach within the NSC on national security matters. The
NSC membership was expanded to include the secretary of the treas-
ury, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, the newly created
assistant to the president for economic policy, the president’s chief of
staff, and the national security advisor. President George W. Bush
continued this emphasis and relied on the NSC structure even more
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