In May 2011 , Americans were surprised by a sudden television coming into court by President Barack Obama . He revealed that after a daring raid by U.S. force into Pakistan , al - Qaida drawing card Osama bin Laden was stagnant . " Justice has been done , " Obama see the nation [ seed : Baker , et al . ] .
While theNavy SEALteam that cornered and kill bin Laden became interior heroes , another unpredicted chemical group played a of the essence role in the successful mission . For months lead up to the raid , staffers from the National Security Council ( NSC ) had organized more than two dozen meeting involving multiplegovernment authority . At those gather , functionary analyzed emerging intelligence , studied possible operational row of natural action and tried to picture out what the international consequences would be if the charge succeeded — or if it fail [ root : Rasmussen ] .
On April 28 , 2011 , Obama had convene an NSC meeting in the Situation Room , a section of the White House West Wing equipped with giant television silver screen and communications gear to relay the latest intelligence information from all over the earth . In attending were the NSC ’s principals , let in National Security Adviser Tom Donilon , Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen , Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others . Obama went around the mesa , involve each advisor for an ruling on the raid , and weighed that entropy . The next day , he give the order to proceed [ source : Allison ] .
The bin Laden raid was the variety of high - stake moment for which the NSC was created by Congress back in 1947 [ source : U.S. Dept . of State ] . When a president has to take activity , it ’s crucial to have well - researched policy option on the table , and experts and advisers who can help him blame the best one . Once the determination has been made , it ’s vital to have someone organize the government ’s various departments and agencies to check that they exploit together to achieve it .
At least that ’s how it ’s supposed to work . While the NSC is a permanent part of the executive branch , each president has considerable leeway to organize the advisory group , and determine it to suit his own leadership style and personality . And some commanders - in - chief do a good job of using the NSC than others . In this article , we ’ll attend at the history of NSC and how it has functioned over the X .
Why Was the National Security Council Created?
For much of America ’s chronicle , presidents got by without hold an National Security Council . Abraham Lincoln , for example , would require hissecretary of res publica , William Seward , and othercabinet membersfor advice — but often disregarded them and came up with his own solvent [ author : Monaghan ] . When Seward sent a memo on why Lincoln should rely upon him to design and pursue foreign insurance , Lincoln brushed him off : " I remark that if this must be done , I must do it " [ origin : Goodwin ] .
By the 1900s , the world and the government had become so complex that presidents started produce an interagency policy - creating procedure . After World War II , Congress — which establish fault with President Franklin Roosevelt ’s direction style , and need to prevent another Pearl Harbor - style attack — decided that a lasting organisation was needed to check that intelligence activity data develop to the Oval Office , and that the president got advice from experts on important decisions [ germ : U.S. Dept . of State ] .
In 1947 , Congress decease the National Security Act , create a council to , in the Scripture of the act , " advise the President with respect to the integration of domestic , foreign and military policies relating to the internal security " and to ensure cooperation among departments and agencies . Just seven functionary , including the president , were permanent penis of the council , though others could look the meetings [ source : Best ] .
Roosevelt ’s successor , Harry Truman , ab initio did n’t have much purpose for the NSC , and seldom attended its meetings . But after the Korean War erupted in 1950 , Truman rapidly saw the value of fetch expert and bureau heads together to forge out policy . President Dwight Eisenhower , who was customary to the military ’s faculty scheme , made the NSC even more elaborate , creating peculiar board to coordinate and implement insurance policy and adding a top assistant to run it all , the placement that ’s now known as national security adviser .
In the early sixties , President John F. Kennedy converted a bowling bowling alley in the West Wing basement into the Situation Room , a meeting distance fit out with communication geared wheel enable it to welcome the latest information from military posts , intelligence means and embassies around the clock . It became the place where the president and his adviser would collect at moment when the nation ’s security was on the line [ informant : U.S. Dept . of State ] .
The Evolution of the National Security Council
In the yr since the National Security Council was created , presidentshave reorganise it to suit their own style of determination - qualification . President Lyndon Johnson set up up a even Tuesday workings lunch that brought together the secretary of DoS and defense , theCIAdirector and the chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . Under President Richard Nixon , the NSC again expand and focalise on gathering analysis from section for National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger , who then synthesize it into written recommendation for Nixon . In many ways , the interior surety adviser became more important than Secretary of State William Rogers , who sometimes was n’t even consulted about alien policy decision .
President Gerald Ford pretty much observe Nixon ’s system , while under President Jimmy Carter , the national security adviser grow into more of a public spokesman for the Chief Executive ’s approximation , rather than a behind - the - scenes manager .
Under President Ronald Reagan , the NSC morphed from an advisory group into an organization that in reality carried out secret operations to support foreign and interior security policy — an overreach that led to the Iran - Contra outrage , which we ’ll talk about after . Reagan ’s successor , George H.W. Bush , went back to the NSC ’s original use . He created a rate of flow chart full of committees whose goals were to add up to agreements and coordinate insurance policy across the Executive Branch . It work swimmingly enough that the next three Presidents — Bill Clinton , George W. Bush and Barack Obama — sting to the elderly Bush ’s approach [ informant : Whittaker , et al . ] .
However , by the Obama administration , the NSC had ballooned to about 400 staffers , four time the size of it it was in the Clinton administration . Half of them were on loan from various department and agencies [ source : DeYoung ] . The gauzy numbers lead to internal complaints about the difficulty of making any decisions , with months , sometimes years of repetitive meetings .
President Donald Trump come into office in January 2017 promising to shake things up in Washington , and that included the NSC . About a week after taking office , he issued a memorandum that radically reorganise the council . Trump made White House political strategist Steve Bannon — a figure sleep together for his controversial far - correct views — a full - fledged fellow member of the NSC .
At the same time , he boot out the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of internal intelligence information , two officials include by law in the NSC , from the listing of those who usually would go to NSC coming together , decreeing alternatively that they " shall attend [ only ] where issues pertaining to their duty and expertise are to be hash out " [ generator : Jaffe , White House ] .
Although there was an tumult in the press on this last point , some say it was overblown . Under previous president the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the director of national intelligence sometimes skipped encounter if the issue being discuss did n’t appertain to them [ source : Qiu ] .
Who’s a Member of the National Security Council?
As you may have figured out already , the National Security Council has multiple layers . At the top , there ’s the star committee , composed of some of the national security measure leaders in theU.S. governing . That includes the chairperson of the Joint Chiefs , the conductor of home intelligence , and the secretaries of state , defense and free energy , whose participation in the NSC is specified by natural law . Other nonstatutory member usually let in the president ’s national surety adviser , the White House chief of staff , the attorney general and various other cabinet members [ seed : Qiu ] .
But meetings are only a part of what the organization does . Other members are experts on region and countries , as well as specialists in topics ranging from cyber surety to public health . Their job is to ensure the top floor of the NSC has the right information to make decisions .
When a president makes state calls to foreign leader , for instance , it ’s wonted for an NSC elderly staffer who ’s an expert on that land to brief the president beforehand , afford him a forecasting of what the other head of res publica might say and outlining key U.S. policy objectives . Then , during the call , the staffer broadly will be close by , listening in on the call and scrawl notes to the president or reply question that arise [ source : Palmeri ] .
On at least one occasion inU.S. history , though , the NSC has gone beyond its job of giving advice and coordinate policy , and actually gotten involved in clandestine operations . As we ’ll discuss in the next section , that did n’t wrick out well .
Controversies and the National Security Council
After President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 , he decided to bank mostly upon Cabinet members and their section faculty for advice , and cut a directive place them — rather than National Security Council staffers — at the helm of various regional group and sub - committees within the NSC . He also downgraded the role of the national security adviser , assigning him to report to the White House top dog of faculty and close up lineal access to the President of the United States . While those move were aspire at reducing home conflict , a Congressional Research Service report by and by conclude that give cabinet member command " tended to reduce the possibility that all side of a given issue would be repose before the full NSC or the President " [ source : Best ] .
Instead of providing entropy , giving advice and foster cooperation among agency , the NSC ’s staff or else became more tortuous in unravel theReagan Administration’scovert natural action — including some that were being run outside of the traditional intelligence setup and the police force as well . After Congress passed the 1984 Boland Amendment , a law that cut off U.S. politics money for the Contra rebel in Nicaragua , NSC staff became part of a secret effort — headed by NSC staffer Lt . Col . Oliver North — to lift funds from other res publica and individual contributors . According to a Congressional investigating study , that drive eventually developed into " the initiative , " a private organization that " had its own aeroplane , pilot , airfield , operatives , ship , secure communication theory devices and secret Swiss cant score . "
Some of the money raise with the help of NSC staff member even was funneled to efforts in the U.S. to influence public opinion and pressure sensation Congress member to patronize restoring help to the Contras [ source : Iran - Contra Report ] .
The Enterprise also became involved in secret softwood in 1985 and 1986 in which Israel sold missile to Iran on behalf of the Reagan Administration in an effort to hold the release of hostages hold in Lebanon . Some $ 18 million of the $ 30 million in proceeds from those sales were then diverted to support the Contras [ source : Iran - Contra Report , Pbs.org ] .
When the operation was reveal , it gas up into a massive public scandal , complete with televised Congressional hearing and an independent counsel probe . North was convicted infederal courtof three charges relate to the malicious gossip , though his convictions were later overturned [ rootage : Ostrow ] .
Why Do Presidents Take Action Without the NSC’s Advice?
While the National Security Council was created by Congress to make trusted that Chief Executive get the full benefit of adviser ' soundness , they sometimes find its bureaucratism too limit . Instead of working with the full policy machinery , ' President sometimes plow to a few key NSC staffers to move ahead on an issue . UnderPresident Obama , the planning and analysis of the bin Laden raid , for deterrent example , was carried out in such secrecy that some NSC principals reportedly were n’t even told about it until the decision was nearly at hand [ source : Allison ] .
And when Obama wanted to thawing dealings with Cuba , he reportedly tasked two senior NSC officials — Deputy National Security Adviser Benjamin J. Rhodes and then - Latin American music director Ricardo Zuninga — to conduct secret talk with the Castro regime . Even Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly did n’t learn about the talking until they were fairly far along [ source : DeYoung ] .
At least in its other week , the Trump establishment took an even more uttermost coming to elude the NSC . Trump ’s first National Security Adviser , Michael Flynn , really banished career elderly faculty from the Oval Office while Trump was talking on the sound to foreign leaders , out of headache that they might leak information to the press . accord to areport in Politico , Flynn and his deputy were often the only NSC functionary in the room during those calls .
But as many president undoubtedly have discover , it ’s baffling to get the job done without the sort of support that the NSC provides . After Flynn was compelled to reconcile for not being forthcoming about contact he ’d had with the Russian embassador prior to Trump taking agency , his heir , H.R. McMaster , quietly moved to restore the NSC ’s traditional functions . He heeded complaints from NSC staff member that the president needed to have experts available when he was conduct diplomacy , and start inviting them back into the way [ informant : Palmeri ] . Controversial strategist Steve Bannon was removed from the NSC in former April 2017 [ source : Merica and Diamond ] .
Lots More Information
I ’ve been concerned in the National Security Council since the later 1980s , when as a newsprint newsperson I had to cover a Republican political fundraiser in California . One of the guests was Lt . Col . Oliver North , the NSC staff member at the forefront of the Iran - Contra scandal . unluckily , he was n’t giving interviews that night .
