1 gen 1950 anni - NSC-68 leads to nuclear buildup

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NSC-68: Top-secret government report of April 1950 warning that national survival in the face of Soviet communism required a massive military buildup.


Atomic developments also played a critical role in the emergence of the Cold War. The United States had entertained the possibility of sharing its nuclear technology following the surrender of Japan, but did not wish to lose a key advantage over the Soviet Union. A 1946 American proposal for United Nations oversight of atomic energy would have assured near-total control of the technology by the United States. The proposal was rejected by the Soviets and only added to mounting tensions. America’s brief tenure as sole nuclear power ended in late August 1949, however, when the USSR successfully tested an atomic bomb in what is now Kazakhstan.


In the wake of this major shift in the balance of power, Truman turned to a new government advisory board for a strategic reassessment. Congress had established the U.S. National Security Council (NSC) via the National Security Act of 1947 — which brought together the State and Defense Departments, as well as intelligence analysts from the military branches and CIA — and tasked it with advising the president on vital matters of foreign affairs. In April 1950, the NSC delivered the report Truman had requested, known as NSC-68. Bristling with alarmist rhetoric, the document marked a decisive turning point in U.S. Cold War strategy. The report’s authors described the Soviet Union not as a typical great power but as one with a “fanatic faith” that seeks to “impose its absolute authority.” Going beyond even the stern language used by George Kennan, NSC-68 cast Soviet ambitions as nothing short of “the domination of the Eurasian landmass.”


To prevent that outcome, the report proposed “a bold and massive program of rebuilding the West’s defensive potential to surpass that of the Soviet world.” The new program would include the development of a hydrogen bomb, a thermonuclear device that would be a thousand times more destructive than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, as well as dramatic increases in conventional forces. Critically, NSC-68 called for Americans to pay higher taxes and to accept further sacrifices out of a national unity of purpose. Many historians see the report as having “militarized” the American approach to the Cold War, which had to that point relied largely on economic measures such as the Marshall Plan. Truman was reluctant to commit to the drastic defense buildup called for in NSC-68, fearing that it would overburden the national budget. But events in Asia would soon lead him to reverse course.

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