Harry S. Truman, the development and operations of the National Security Council, and the origins of United States Cold War policies

Scope and method of study. During the summers of 1987 and 1988, research was conducted to determine the development and organization of the National Security Council (NSC) and its advisory role in the formulation of Truman's Cold War policies from September 1947 to December 1948. Archival and manuscript collections of the Truman administration and the NSC were examined to assess the degree of influence the council's foreign and national security policy recommendations had on the course of the nascent stages of the Cold War. Similar research was conducted during the fall of 1988 and spring of 1989 into the NSC policy formulation process and the influence of NSC recommendations on the later phases of the Cold War during the Truman administration, from January 1949 to January 1952. Research and analysis focused on three areas of United States foreign policy: Europe, East and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The study was supplemented by assessments of United States national security plans.;Findings and conclusions. In the research of 1987 it was found that the parameters and general concepts of the doctrine of containment took shape in foreign and national security policies coordinated by the NSC and adopted by President Truman. Similar information was discovered from the research of 1988 and 1989, but in addition it was found that United States Cold War foreign and national security policies during the years 1949 to 1952 became more confrontational toward the Soviet Union. Global economic and military containment of Soviet expansion and all forms of Communist expansion, became the primary goal of United States Cold War policy by 1950. Throughout the Truman presidency the NSC was a primary formulator of United States Cold War policy, and as such played a much greater role in establishing America's Cold War responses than historians previously believed.