The National Security Medal was a decoration of the United States of America officially established by President Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...

 in Executive Order 10431 of January 19, 1953. The medal was awarded to any person, without regard to nationality, for distinguished achievement or outstanding contribution on or after July 26, 1947, in the field of intelligence relating to the national security of the United States.

The National Security Medal is authorized to both civilians and personnel of the United States military and is an authorized decoration

Awards and decorations of the United States military

Awards and decorations of the United States Military are military decorations which recognize service and personal accomplishments while a member of the United States armed forces...

 for display on active duty uniforms of the United States armed forces

United States armed forces

The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...

. In such cases, the National Security Medal is worn after all U.S. military personal decorations and unit awards and before any military campaign/service awards and foreign decorations.

Additional decorations of the National Security Medal are denoted by a bronze oak leaf cluster

Oak leaf cluster

An oak leaf cluster is a common device which is placed on U.S. Army and Air Force awards and decorations to denote those who have received more than one bestowal of a particular decoration. The number of oak leaf clusters typically indicates the number of subsequent awards of the decoration...

.

Upon establishment of the National Intelligence Awards Program by the United States Intelligence Community, this highest award has been replaced with the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal

National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal

The National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal is the highest decoration awarded for service to the United States Intelligence Community...

.

Notable recipients

• Major General William Joseph Donovan
  William Joseph Donovan
  William Joseph Donovan was a United States soldier, lawyer and intelligence officer, best remembered as the wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services...
  
  
• Allen Dulles
• William F. Friedman
  William F. Friedman
  William Frederick Friedman was a US Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signals Intelligence Service in the 1930s, and parts of its follow-on services into the 1950s...
  
  
• Robert Gates
  Robert Gates
  Dr. Robert Michael Gates is a retired civil servant and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W....
  
  
• Richard Helms
  Richard Helms
  Richard McGarrah Helms was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1966 to 1973. He was the only director to have been convicted of lying to the United States Congress over Central Intelligence Agency undercover activities. In 1977, he was sentenced to the maximum fine and received a suspended...
  
  
• Lawrence R. Houston
• Clarence Leonard Johnson
• Edward Lansdale
  Edward Lansdale
  Edward Geary Lansdale was a United States Air Force officer who served in the Office of Strategic Services and the Central Intelligence Agency. He rose to the rank of Major General and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1963. He was an early proponent of more aggressive US actions in...
  
  
• John McCone
  John McCone
  John Alexander McCone was an American businessman and politician who served as Director of Central Intelligence during the height of the Cold War.- Background :...
  
  
• Frank Rowlett
  Frank Rowlett
  Frank Byron Rowlett was an American cryptologist.Rowlett was born in Rose Hill, Virginia and attended Emory & Henry College in Emory, Virginia, where he was a member of the Beta Lambda Zeta fraternity. In 1929 he received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and chemistry...
  
  
• Adm. William O. Studeman, USN
  United States Navy
  The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
  
  
• Adm. John Scott Redd
  John Scott Redd
  John Scott Redd was a vice admiral of the United States Navy, and afterward the first Senate-confirmed Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, serving from 2005 until 2007. According to David Martin at the CBS Evening News, "Scott Redd may be the most important person you've never heard...
  
  
• Walter Bedell Smith
  Walter Bedell Smith
  Walter Bedell "Beetle" Smith was a senior United States Army general who served as General Dwight D. Eisenhower's chief of staff at Allied Forces Headquarters during the Tunisia Campaign and the Allied invasion of Italy...
  
  
• Michael Hayden,