195. Editorial Note
Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles prepared a paper for a review of national security policy then underway on November 18, 1954. Dulles reviewed the evolving dynamics of the superpower competition, predicting that, over the next few years, the Soviet Union would become a more formidable competitor with the West in all regions of the world. To respond to this growing competition (which Dulles believed would remain primarily diplomatic, economic, and cultural, and was not likely to result in a ground war), Dulles noted that the United States needed “to employ in a closely coordinated fashion all the cold war weapons at its disposal.” To do so, the government required “the decisive coordination of political, military, economic and covert actions.” The text is in Foreign Relations, 1952–1954, volume II, Part 1, pages 776–781.