Editing National security directive (section)

===Truman and Eisenhower administrations===
National security directives were quite different in the early period of the [[Cold War]]. A 1988 [[General Accounting Office]] (GAO) investigation into national security directives left out the directives from the Truman and Eisenhower years because "they were not structured in a way to allow categorization."{{sfn|General Accounting Office|1988|page=1}} The study nevertheless made note of two types of directives. The first was "policy papers" which ''could'' contain policy recommendations, in which case the president might decide to approve the policy by writing his signature.{{sfn|General Accounting Office|1988|page=2}} A famous example of such a policy paper is [[NSC 68]]. GAO also noted another type of directive called "NSC Actions", which were "numbered records of decisions that were reached at NSC meetings.{{sfn|General Accounting Office|1988|page=2}}