The National Security Council published NSC 68 in 1950 putting forth its goals and objectives. It was a major shift in U. S. foreign policy. Here is how Prof. Kuchan, formerly on the staff of NSC summarizes the result:
"Elite manipulation of popular attitudes also played an important role in shaping U.S. policy. The Truman administration initially succeeded in convincing the public that effective containment of the Soviets would entail massive economic aid. But elites later paid a price for manipulating public attitudes and overselling anticommunism. In 1950, they found themselves entrapped in domestic pressures of their own making, forced by political considerations to extend the militarization of containment to the Far East. A new level of American involvement in the periphery would have been forthcoming even in the absence of these domestic pressures. Yet the historical evidence suggests that strategic beliefs and domestic politics acted synergistically to expand the scope of America's overseas commitments.
"From 1950 onward, the economic interests associated with lucrative defense contracts and the organizational interests of the military services became prominent features of the domestic political landscape, adding momentum behind the policies and deepening the mindset associated with NSC 68. The ingredients of America's Cold War strategic culture were in place: an elite community infused with images of a pervasive and hostile East-West struggle; a domestic polity galvanized by anticommunism and fear of the Soviet Union; an industrial sector basking in the benefits of high defense spending; and a military establishment wedded to demanding nuclear and conventional missions. This strategic culture sustained a set of policies that fueled the intensity of the Cold War and deeply mired the United States in costly conflicts in the Third World."
Charles A. Kuchan. The Vulnerability of Empire. Ithica: Cornell University Press. 1994. 484.
