National security directive

[7] The Kennedy administration which took office in 1961 reorganized the NSC and began issuing National Security Action Memoranda (NSAMs).

This was intended to reduce interagency conflicts which were observed in the response to the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship.

[12] Regarding the secrecy of presidential directives, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy stated in February 2008 that: Of the 54 National Security Presidential Directives issued by the (George W.) Bush Administration to date, the titles of only about half have been publicly identified.

In other words, there are dozens of undisclosed Presidential directives that define U.S. national security policy and task government agencies, but whose substance is unknown either to the public or, as a rule, to Congress.

[13] However, in an unprecedented development, the first Trump administration ordered their national security directives to be published in the Federal Register.