For 60 years, presidents have sought to use the NSC system to in-
tegrate foreign and defense policies in order to preserve the nation’s
security and advance its interests abroad. Recurrent structural modi-
fications over the years have reflected presidential management style,
changing requirements, and personal relationships.NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL DIRECTIVE (NSCD) 4-A.Is-
sued in December 1947, the directive assigned responsibility for
covert actionin the emerging Cold Warto the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), which had been established the previous September.
President Harry S. Trumanand his national security advisorshad
become alarmed over Soviet psychological warfare(PSYWAR) op-
erations and, to counter the threat, issued the directive to establish,
for the first time in U.S. history, a covert action capability during
peacetime. NSCD 4-A made the director of central intelligence
(DCI) responsible for psychological warfare actions against the nas-
cent Soviet threat. However, opposition to the entire idea of psycho-
logical operations, led by the Department of State, sparked a gov-
ernment-wide debate and led to the issuance of National Security
Council Directive 10/2, which superceded NSCD 4-Ain June 1948.NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL DIRECTIVE (NSCD) 10/2. Is-
sued on 18 June 1948, NSC 10/2 created the semiautonomous Office
of Policy Coordination (OPC) within the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) to conduct U.S. covert actions. It replaced the empha-
sis on psychological warfare(PSYWAR) with the broader concept of
covert actions, to include propaganda, economic warfare, preventive
direct action such as sabotage and demolition, subversion against hos-
tile states, and support of indigenous anticommunist elements in
threatened countries. The directive required that covert action be run by
the OPC under the guidance, in peacetime, of the Department of
State, and, in wartime, of the Department of Defense(DOD). In ad-
dition, NSC 10/2 outlined a convoluted chain of command, nominally
under the leadership of National Security Council(NSC), State De-
partment, and CIAofficials.
In practice, however, George F. Kennan, director of the State De-
partment’s Policy Planning Staff and, later, the author of the con-
tainment policy, dominated meetings, claiming that political warfare
is essentially an instrument of foreign policy and any office conduct-NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL DIRECTIVE (NSCD) 10/2• 13705-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 137