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Presidential directives are a form of executive order issued by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the National Security Council. As a form of executive order, a Presidential Directive has the "full force and effect of law."^[1] Because of the nature of presidential directives as pertaining to the national security of the United States, many presidential directives are promulgated as classified. Various presidents since the administration of John F. Kennedy have issued such directives but under different names.

National Security Decision Directive 114, signed by Ronald Reagan

After the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship and interagency problems over responsibility for coordinating terrorism efforts, a National Security Decision Directive was signed by President Reagan in early 1986. This gave the State Department responsibility for coordinating international terrorism policy.

After September 11, 2001, George Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPDs), with the consent of the Homeland Security Council. The first such directive created the Homeland Security Council while the second changed immigration policies to combat terrorism. The most recent HSPD (HSPD-21) was issued October 18, 2007 and called for public and private healthcare organizations, hospitals and healthcare facilities to form a system of "disaster healthcare" the definition of which mimicked the definition of disaster medicine.

State was put in charge of coordinating the efforts of CIA, DOD, and FBI efforts to track and deal with terrorism. The first man in charge was L. Paul (Jerry) Bremer with the title, Coordinator for Counter Terrorism at State Department (S/CT).

• http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Reference+Desk/NSAMs.htm - National Security Action Memorandums | Document & Images From The Presidential Papers of John Fitzgerald Kennedy | National Security Files
• http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/archives.hom/NSAMs/nsamhom.asp - Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
• http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsam-jfk/NSAM_LIST.pdf - JFK | NSAMs list | PDF
• http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/direct.htm - Federation of American Scientists Collection of Presidential Directives
• http://www.llsdc.org/sourcebook/docs/CRS-98-611.pdf - Presidential Directives: Background and Overview | PDF
• TERRORISM: WHY THE NUMBERS MATTER By Larry C Johnson, Managing Director BERG Associates, LLC [1]

• Continuity of Operations Plan
• National Security Directive