Eisenhower’s Farewell Address: the "Military-Industrial Complex"

Background

This clip, excerpted from President Dwight Eisenhower’s “Farwell Speech,” has an unclear provenance. My best guest is that it came from Eugene Jarecki’s 2005 film Why We Fight. Eisenhower originally delivered on live television and radio on January 17, 1961. The full text of the speech is available at the Eisenhower archives website

The following quotations are from Stephen Ambrose’s Eisenhower: Solider and President (537).

“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.”

Ambrose also notes that Eisenhower made several less-known warnings in this speech.

“The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.”

“”We-you and I, and our government-must avoid plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spirtual heritage.”

Here is the Film



Discussion
Watch the clip and read the full text of Eisenhower’s speech.

Do you think that this except mischaracterizes or takes out of context what Eisenhower was trying to communicate with the American people?

Do you think that Eisenhower’s principal fear was “big government” in all of its forms, or did he find something uniquely dangerous in the expansion of America’s military during the Cold War?


Sources
Stephen Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier and President. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990.

Dwight D Eisenhower, Farewell Address.