Ike's Warning Of Military Expansion, 50 Years Later

FOCUS: Apocalypse Fairly Soon

FOCUS: Five Facts That Put America to Shame

The NDAA's Coup d'Etat Foiled

FOCUS: The Commencement Address That Won't Be Given

A Victory for All of Us

NPR reports: "On January 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave the nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex, a formidable union of defense contractors and the armed forces."

Portrait, President Dwight Eisenhower, 03/01/50. (photo: Arnold Newman/Getty Images)

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+17 # WillMissSECDEFGates 2011-01-17 10:11

Criticize if you will, SECDEF Gates is honorable and speaks the truth. The huge and powerful Defense contractors control our corrupt Congress, and the SECDEF takes his marching orders from - the POTUS and his supporters in Congress. These wars are maufactured by Congress and the Defense contractors. Cut! Cut! Cut!

+15 # giraffe 2011-01-17 11:04

Omission of the military when considering our deficit makes me believe we are run by a military coalition already. The fact the Boner is going to waste a week tearing down the Health Care bill - with no replacement parts they want to remove - is proof the man is hiding the real issues --

JOBS going overseas with no tax liability to those companies while giving (also) giving them tax breaks to make more jobs overseas.

We (the people) need to march like those led by Martin Luther King Jr. headed for the "rights" of former slaves. We (the people) need a leader - such as Krugman, Riech, Corn, Bernie, Anthony Wiener -- together those GOODD politicians and journalists CAN lead us --

Will they?

Stop the War Machine by exposure of the private military getting bigger and money missing! Billions.

+19 # goodsensecynic 2011-01-17 11:52

Full marks to Ike for giving a singularly sensible slogan to those of us seeking something to say about what C. Wright Mills had called the "power elite" five years previously.

(Ike should know, he was part of it!)

What few people remember, however, is the fact that President Eisenhower had originally meant to say the "military-industrial-congressional complex," suggesting that many legislators were in the pockets of the corporations and the pentagon. He was, however, convinced to drop the reference to Congress by senior members of the Republican Party.

Instead of contracting the definition, I'd expand it and speak of the military-industrial-congressional-financial-ideological complex, thus including "Wall Street" and the main contributors to ideology and ignorance among Americans, namely the corporate print and broadcast media and much of what passes for education - especially in places that are seeking to eliminate Thomas Jefferson from US history and banning evolution from the schools.

0 # Ken Hall 2011-01-18 07:08

Though I agree with the tone and spirit of your comments, there is no evidence that I can find, except hearsay, that any draft of the speech contained the "congressional" connection. If you can point me to a bona-fied connection I would be pleased to see it. In the present day it is clear the US Congress is an important part of the nepotistic system that trades on fear to divert public funds into private pockets, and has created a very expensive empire that benefits a few at the top, antagonizes our neighbors, and impoverishes US citizens.

+12 # Elkan 2011-01-17 12:28

An earlier draft of Eisenhower's speech referred to the military-industrial-Congressional complex. It's a shame he didn't go with this more relevant characterizatio n.

+12 # don emilio 2011-01-17 14:13

I find it disturbing that Eisenhower, who was the last US military leader to have command during a global, horrendous mass slaughter, could understand so clearly what none of the current crop of military bureaucrats can admit. But he was less concerned about his "career" than clowns like Petraeus, Mullen, et al. On the other hand, he also didn't have to face the temptations the military corpocrasy dangles in front of every potentially "reliable" junior officer. Thus, the rich ripoff artists in the defense racket can further engorge themselves by keeping a stable of the uniformed who are totally supportive of what is now America's permanent wars to trapse out for the talk (propaganda) shows.

+4 # Gussie 2011-01-17 18:40

I see hope for the future and it lies overseas. Democracy cannot
serve the interests of sheep.

+3 # Gary Ray Pierson 2011-01-18 06:08

Our War Machine at Work! One reason why we spend so much on war, you go against the war machine and you die. John P Wheeler III: Former Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, Member of Council on Foreign Relations, Consultant to Mitre Corporation Found Dumped in Landfill
January 3rd, 2011

Update: Mitre Won’t Say What Wheeler Was Doing There

Mmm hmm.

Wheeler had been working since March 2009 as a consultant at the nonprofit Mitre Corp. in McLean, company spokeswoman Jennifer J. Shearman said. She said the company does information technology work for several federal agencies, including the Defense and Homeland Security departments, but she did not know what type of work Wheeler did.
Pine Bluff Arkansas, arsenal has more poison gas than George H.or W.Bush. Do not light that match.. formally, Cpl. Pierson 101st Airborne Vietnam.. War bad. Peace good, what's so hard to understand?? Oh yeah $ and power.. Intoxicating.. Get drunk with it and we are drunk beyond the legal limit... More guns and booze and churches for every one! Some one will think it's right.. A Fool... ^i^

What was he doing at Mitre?

0 # PatF 2011-01-18 09:02

Am I too much a cynic? When I heard this on NPR yesterday morning, I thought, Well, if NPR is onto it, it's because the powers that be want it aired for some reason. NPR is the last place in the world to look for critical reporting

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