National Security Council Paper Number 68 (NSC #68), a policy directive signed by President Harry S. Truman in September 1950, initiated a militarized, global concept of U.S. Cold War containment strategy against the Soviet Union. It called for a full mobilization of the U.S. economy during peacetime—an unprecedented measure that created an immense military-industrial segment of the economy. As such, NSC #68 had profound implications for American foreign policy and the nation's society and culture.

NSC #68 fundamentally altered the containment theory conceived by diplomat George F. Kennan. In 1947, in an article published in Foreign Affairs titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," Kennan had argued that the United States should pursue a policy in which Soviet moves were "contained by the adroit and vigilant application of counter-force." Proceeding from the assumption that America had limited resources with which to wage such a policy, Kennan prioritized the areas of vital U...