Dwight Eisenhower Warned Us About The Takeover Of The Military Industrial Complex Decades Ago

[markiv]

4. It was a very honest, and complex message

(i was about to start such a thread, you beat me to it)

what he wss talking about, is how once you make a personal investment in any activity, you lose some objectivity in your beliefs about the activity, because self interest becomes part of your equation

just this past Sunday, I saw part of 'Meet the Press' with a panel discussion about SYria, they all seemed to favor going in. But then they cut to a commercial, for (I believe) General Dynamics - it showed fighter jets, and how they preserve freedom. They may fully believe this, but which decision makes for a better fiscal quarter (something they cant ignore) - intervention, or non intervention? An honorable head of a defense contractor has a responsibility to the American People - but he (and it usually will be a 'he') also has a responsibility to the stockholders - Eisenhower is pointing out this confilict of interest.

Let's look at a record of Meet the Press from an episode 2 months before Eisenhower's farewell speech:


"Meet the Press" Episode dated 27 November 1960 (1960)

The guests are Frank Pace, Vice Chairman of the President's Commission on National Goals, and Chairman of the Board for General Dynamics Corporation, and Dr. James R. Killian, Jr., Commission on National Goals, and Chairman of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation."


Eisenhower wass pointing out, that even if a person is trying to be what most people would call 'good', that such motivations lurk around in their heads and souls, without them even realizing it. He was talking about his lifetime in the military, from West Point, to five star, and then commander in chief, answering to the people

In the last paragraph below, he is saying to those outside of the bubble of financial interest 'you cannot just take our (those inside the financial interest bubble) word for it!"

By 'exists and will persist', he's saying this message will be valid long into the future. This speech was a great gift to the American people


"A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. "