National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests (NSSM200), also known as the "Kissinger Report", was a national security directive completed on December 10, 1974 by the United States National Security Council under the direction of Henry Kissinger following initial orders from President of the United States Richard Nixon. NSSM200 was reworked and adopted as official United States policy through NSDM 314 by President Gerald Ford on November 26, 1975. It was initially classified for over a decade but was obtained by researchers in the early 1990s. The memorandum and subsequent policies developed from the report were observed as a way the United States could use human population control to limit the political power of undeveloped nations, ensure the easy extraction of foreign natural resources, prevent young anti-establishment individuals from being born and to protect American businesses abroad from interference from nations seeking to support their growing populations. Background Under the administration of President Richard Nixon during the Cold War, his government adopted an agenda of enforcing human population control in order to prevent the global spread of communism and under the advice of major general William Henry Draper Jr., supported the creation of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in order to establish a global source of population control to avoid an image of imperialism. Believing that future generations birthed throughout the world posed a danger to wealth accumulation, wealthy individuals and the US government backed a policy of global population control in an effort to avoid blame. As a result, the NSSM200 was drafted primarily by Philander Claxton and concluded that global population control was necessary to protect US economic and military interests. The plan was created to avoid an appearance of "economic or racial imperialism" and "not be seen ... as an industrialized country policy to keep their strength down or reserve resources for use by the rich countries", with a written goal of "fertility reduction and not improvement in the lives of people" despite instructing organizers to "emphasize development and improvements in the quality of life of the poor", later explaining such projects were "primarily for other reasons". Contents The basic thesis of the memorandum was that population growth in the least developed countries (LDCs) is a concern to US national security, because it would tend to risk civil unrest and political instability in countries that had a