Kissinger, who was Nixon's national security advisor, exercised a
monopoly on foreign policy, making both the State Department and the NSC
itself almost superfluous. Ford tried to restore the balance, but Carter's
advisor Brzezinski regained much of the power that Kissinger once had. By
the time Reagan sleepwalked his way into the oval office, the NSC was able
to run with the ball in the President's name. This allowed an obscure
lieutenant colonel named Oliver North to orchestrate U.S. policy under the
protection of U.S. secrecy laws, and in the name of the American people
(despite public opinion polls to the contrary). While journalists were
generally content to doze under Reagan's spell, some eventually woke up.
ISBN 0-688-07397-2
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