Intel Insights: 1947 Security Act Has Strong Reach Today

Sixty-four years ago this week President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into law. In a break with what had been previous American practice, this law set the stage for the establishment of the Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force as a separate service, and the first publicly acknowledged peacetime intelligence agency, the CIA.

In effect, the National Security Act of 1947 marked America’s acceptance of the fact that it had become a Great Power and that it could no longer afford to turn its back on the world’s problems like it had after World War I.

The enormity of the Second World War, the millions killed, wounded, and displaced, and the millions who donned the uniforms of their respective countries, meant that very few people living around the world in 1945 had escaped its impact.

In the end, the U.S. and Allied victory in that war represented a triumph of good over evil. But, that triumph was, at best, incomplete.

Soon a new threat materialized. This one took the form of the Soviet Union and its communist ideology. The U.S. saw that it had to establish a permanent national security structure that could cope with the emerging Soviet threat.

The result was a new law that re-cast the role of government and fundamentally changed the nature of our society. Gone were the last bureaucratic vestiges of isolationism. The new era of American internationalism was at hand.

Today we seldom think how different our lives would be had President Truman not signed this law. Our military would be less unified and less capable. Our intelligence agencies might not even exist at all. As bad as we might think things are, it’s clear that our world would be far less secure than it is today.

The National Security Act of 1947 has been amended many times. The military was further strengthened by the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986.

Our Intelligence Community underwent another significant change in December 2004, with the passage of the National Security Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. That act established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to better synchronize the efforts of the various Intelligence Community agencies in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. It also marked the biggest reform of the National Security Act of 1947.

In addition, new agencies with national security responsibilities have been created to cope with new global challenges. Many of them have a presence in our area and many of us work for them either directly or indirectly.

The U.S. certainly experienced its share of diplomatic and military setbacks after 1947. The Korean War ended in a stalemate; the Vietnam War was a defeat; we were attacked on 9/11 and didn’t see it coming.

But we also had some significant successes. The National Security Act of 1947 gave President John F. Kennedy the institutions and structures he needed to diffuse the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and it allowed the first President George H.W. Bush to complete the work of President Reagan and end the Cold War without firing a shot.

That proved to be the ultimate triumph for President Truman and this landmark piece of legislation.

We can only hope that our present-day legislators draw inspiration from a law signed 64 years ago and create something as good and as lasting as our nation tries to find its way in a new world

Cedric Leighton lives in Lorton and is the Founder and President of Cedric Leighton Associates, a Washington area strategic risk and management consultancy.