Presidential directives on national security

Contains more than 1,836 highest-level documents issued by presidents from Harry S. Truman to George W. Bush concerning foreign affairs, defense and arms control policy, intelligence and counterterrorist activities, and international economic policy. Thanks to a long-standing Freedom of Information Act campaign by the National Security Archive, the two parts of this collection contain every single presidential directive released to date. (All of the documents in Part II became available after the publication of Part I.) Furthermore, unlike the daily stream of White House proclamations and press releases that are designed to frame official policy for public consumption, these directives and requests for studies reflect each president's actual, behind-the-scenes priorities, goals and decisions. In addition, the numerous substantive responses to study requests that are included here, particularly from the Nixon and Ford administrations, offer an insider's view of many of the most important policy documents that crossed the president's desk throughout the post-World War II period.