The Results And Reasons Of The Establishment Of National Security Nstitution During The Era Of President Truman

Over one hundred years before world war Ⅱ,under the ideology of "isolationist"and"anti-nationalist",the size of U.S. government and its army were so limited.The focus of U.S. government was internal affairs so that the international affairs in political and military arenas were almost neglected.The end of World war II, being the world leader quickly became the consensus of Americans who had the conscious of "savior".After the accumulation of two world wars,the United States had sufficient material basis for participating in internationalaffairs.However, those problems exposed by the wartime and post-war experience in the military command structure,government organizations and decision-making procedures were questioning the decision-makers whether the U.S. has a suitable defense institution matching the international responsibility that it should shoulder. In this condition,the debate on national defense system rebuilding which was launched first in the United States Army and Navy and then swept the United States became a centre topic during president Truman.From the army’s Marshall plan to the Eberstadt Report and till the1947National Security Act,it was a process of controversy and compromise on the issue involved in the military services,congress and other government departments.Finally,a huge national security network was established.Establishment of the national security institution was originally intended to achieve coordination between the higher decision-making officials on diplomatic and defense policy.For military leader like Mashall and Forrestal,improving military services position in diplomacy and security affairs is an important goal.President Truman sought to ameliorate strife,struggle and squander between military services.However,when looking into the purpose and status of implementation of the national security institution, is found that there’s big gap between the objects and actual performances in Trumanera.Forexample,institutional integration mechanisms was inadequate,and the State Military Estabilishmentwithout real power ultimately was replaced by the Department of Defense;There was a lack of communication and coordination between State and Defense Department;Competion on military budget inside the military continued;CIAunexpectedly improved its role in the confidential action;NSC always changed its status.The reason for the gap is rightly the main concern of this paper.The first reason for the gap is the deep-rooted tradition of checks and balances in America which determines the primary consideration is not efficient exercise of power but a better balance of power.Therefore not only the provisions of National Security Act itself is vague,the functions of the various agencies are also defective.For instance the military services were given too much independence. Secondly,Truman’s reducing government budget especially the military budget make the discarding services more intense.Thirdly,with the changing of international environment,the boundaries between diplomacy and military were increasingly blurred.Military forces were frequently involved in the field of foreign affairs which should be managed by the State Department and it inevitably led to contention between the State and Defense Department.Fourth,the "Cold War"between Soviet Union and U.S. opens the door for CIA’s covert actions that made the CIA elevated to the unexpected status.Finally,NSC was dominated by the president,and its positon was completely determined by the attitude of the president.For these reasons there is gap between ideal and the reality of the national security institution in Truman era. There are five parts in the article.The first part is a brief introduction of the process of the national security institution during the era of president Truman.The second part is the reason and goal of the national security institution.Taking these into account, the following part looks into the actual situation of the institution in the era of president Truman,1947-1952. In this part,we can observe so many questions.There’re big gap between the ideal and realityin that period.Then we inquire into the reason why the gap exists. The final part is a summary and the lesson China can learn from the issue.