The Mighty Military-Industrial Establishment

As Eisenhower warned, it drives a hunger for war!
by Charlie Leck

All of us have heard about former President Dwight David Eisenhower’s warning about a military-industrial complex in the United States. He issued the warning in 1961, in his final speech as President. It was his farewell to the American people. He spoke on national television from the oval office. The speech lasted less than 10 minutes. Eisenhower, not normally a powerful speaker, poured his heart and soul into the speech. I was a young man in my first year of college. I remember watching the speech in the student union. Several professors watched with us.

Did any of us realize how prophetic Eisenhower was? Today the establishment of which he spoke is a mighty one indeed, and some suspect it drives the American hunger for war. Below, as a reminder, I quote the relevant section of Eisenhower’s excellent speech.

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 peace time, 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, and 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 military-industrial 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 huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

The proper meshing is no longer a reality. Security and liberty are not prospering. The titans of the military industrial complex have been making the decisions in America for the last seven years.