On July 26, 1947, President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act into law. The Act drastically restructured United States military and intelligence agencies.
The law was passed just two years after the end of World War II during a period of rising tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. The goal of the National Security Act was to ensure American security for the coming decades. The Act accomplished this by establishing a few key military and intelligence agencies:
The National Security Act established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to collect intelligence across the globe and oversee its dissemination across the federal government.
Because the CIA is an executive agency, its leader is appointed by the President and approved by the Senate in accordance with Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. The current head of the CIA is William Burns.
The Act also established the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), a group consisting of the heads of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. The purpose of the JCS is to advise the President – the commander-in-chief of the armed forces – on matters related to military strategy.
The National Security Council (NSC) was created to advise the President on foreign policy and national security. Through the NSC, the presidential administration is able to develop informed policies and coordinate their implementation across a variety of government agencies.
The members of the NSC include the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Advisor. Additional members may be added to the Council through appointment by the President and approval by the Senate.
The Act drastically reorganized the United States military, combining the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into a new Department of Defense (DOD). The establishment of the DOD was meant to limit the confusion caused by having multiple lines of command for the military. Now, the nation’s armed forces are unified under a single department based in the Pentagon.
Seventy-six years after its introduction, the National Security Act is considered one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history. The Act laid the groundwork for modern American defense and national security, allowing our nation to endure decades of competition with the Soviet Union and move into the twenty-first century as the world’s dominant superpower.
