140. Editorial Note
The 521st meeting of the National Security Council took place on January 7, 1964. This was the first NSC meeting in 1964 and the second since Lyndon Johnson’s accession to the presidency on November 22, 1963. The final meeting—the 594th—took place on November 25, 1968. Summary notes for 73 of the 75 NSC meetings during the Johnson Presidency, taken mainly by NSC Executive Secretary Bromley Smith, are at the Johnson Library, National Security File, NSC Meetings File. Director of Central Intelligence John McCone’s notes for NSC meetings prior to his resignation on April 28, 1965, are at the Johnson Library (John McCone Memoranda of Meetings with the President) and at the Central Intelligence Agency (DCI (McCone) Files). Additional notes for five meetings (July 27, 1965, January 29, 1966, September 13, 1967, June 5 and October 31, 1968) are in the Meeting Notes Files at the Johnson Library. Additional notes for nine meetings, taken by Assistant (and then Deputy) Press Secretary W. Thomas Johnson between July 1967 and November 1968, are in Tom Johnson’s Notes of Meetings at the Johnson Library.
Backup material for NSC meetings is in the National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, S/S-NSC Files: Lot 70 D 265 (1964–1966) and Lot 72 D 318 (1966–1968). At the Johnson Library backup material for NSC meetings is located principally in the NSC Meetings File and the NSC Agency File (both part of the National Security File), the Meeting Notes File, and the President’s Appointment File under dates of meetings.
Walt W. Rostow, President Johnson’s National Security Adviser from April 1966 to January 1969, discusses NSC meetings and the more general topic of “The Organization of National Security Affairs” under Johnson in The Diffusion of Power, pages 358–368. Additional information on NSC meetings can be found in David C. Humphrey, “NSC Meetings During the Johnson Presidency,” Diplomatic History, 18 (Winter 1994): 29–45.