Paul Nitze had famously drafted National Security Council memo NSC-68 in 1950, which helped shape U.S. policy during the Cold War, by calling for a substantial increase in military spending and “a rapid build-up of the political, economic, and military strength in the free world” to contain the Soviet threat. As Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Nitze was among the hawkish members of ExComm, urging an immediate military strike, as he believed the Soviet missiles in Cuba dramatically altered the strategic nuclear balance.
Photo from National Archives. Paul H. Nitze (left) with Cyrus R. Vance and Robert McNamara in his Pentagon office, 04/02/1965 Item from Record Group 330: Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1921 – 2008. ARC Identifier 6385770.