163. Editorial Note
NSC 162/2 of October 30, 1953, “Basic National Security Policy,” set forth President Eisenhower’s Cold War strategy, which included several policy formulations of importance to the intelligence community. NSC 162/2 declared that United States security required the development and maintenance of an intelligence system capable of: “1) collecting and analyzing indications of hostile intentions that would give maximum prior warning of possible aggression or subversion in [Page 466] any area of the world; 2) accurately evaluating the capabilities of foreign countries, friendly and neutral as well as enemy, to undertake military, political, economic and subversive courses of action affecting U.S. security; and 3) forecasting potential foreign developments having a bearing on U.S. national security.”
As a means to reduce Soviet capabilities to control or influence the free world, NSC 162/2 also called on the government to: “a) take overt and covert measures to discredit Soviet prestige and ideology as effective instruments of Soviet power, and to reduce the strength of communist parties and other pro-Soviet elements; b) take all feasible diplomatic, political, economic and covert measures to counter any threat of a party or individuals directly or indirectly responsive to Soviet control to achieve dominant power in a free world country; and c) undertake selective, positive actions to eliminate Soviet-Communist control over any areas of the free world.” NSC 162/2 is printed in full in Foreign Relations, 1952–1954, volume II, Part 1, pages 577–597.