NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

(NSC) U.S. agency within the Executive Office of the President, established by the National Security Act in 1947 to advise the president on domestic, foreign, and military policies related to national security. The president of the United States is chairman of the NSC; other members include the vice president and the secretaries of state and defense. Advisers to the NSC are the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and other officials whom the president may appoint with Senate approval. The NSC staff is headed by a special assistant for national security affairs, who generally acts as a close adviser of the president. The NSC provides the White House with a useful foreign policy-making instrument that is independent of the State Department. In the late 1980s, covert illegal activities by members of the NSC caused the scandal known as the Iran-Contra Affair (q.v.).