The aim of this article is to analyse and show in detail the influence of the National Security and Development Doctrine, the main ideological prop of the 1964 civilian-military coup, on the education policy implemented by the regime. Special attention is given to the MEC-USAID agreements, the setting up of the Meira Matos Commission and the reform of elementary, middle and high school education, which was put into effect by the enactment of Law 5692/1971. It purports to show that their overriding purpose was to adapt the education system to the economic and political model in place at that time, so as to transform it into a tool for the promotion of national security and development as perceived by that doctrine. The article concludes that the changes that took place in Brazilian education can only be fully comprehended in the light of their interaction with the processes that fostered the manifestation of the National Security ideology in Latin America as a whole and Brazil in particular. (Contains 90 footnotes.)