Eisenhower’s Farewell Address At 60

American Conservative ^ | 1/16/2021 | Pavlos Papodoplous

[Onthebrink]

If you know one thing about Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, chances are it’s the phrase “military-industrial complex.” But the military-industrial complex was only part of his warning. Indeed, he saw that the massive military establishment and armaments industry were the results of a larger “technological revolution” that was still unfolding. Even if we were to radically cut defense spending, or somehow reconvert our permanent armaments industry to the production of ploughshares—which would themselves be hamfisted ways of correcting our policies—we would miss the root causes of these dysfunctions. Now, sixty years later, is as good a time as any to revisit the Farewell Address, reassess its relevance to America today, and consider how the sickness that Eisenhower saw, and only partially diagnosed, has metastasized in the intervening decades.

[EEGator]

[Zhang Fei]

The entire speech, a fairly concise one, is archived here. Liberals have completely distorted what the speech said. Its thrust was that the country needs to avoid returning to the pre-WWII defense expenditures of roughly 1% of national output. Throughout his presidential tenure, those expenditures hovered in the 10% range. We are now at about 4%.

[FreedomPoster]

He warned against the government-big science complex as much as he warned of the M-I complex. Climate Change, anyone?

[Larry Lucido]

“Eisenhower’s Farewell Address At 60”

60 what?

[Larry Lucido]

Never mind. I figured it out.

[SamAdams76]

Eisenhower had an interesting life.

He got really upset when duty called and kept him from golfing. But he did his duty, always.

[exnavy]

I believe Ike missed the mark. It isn’t the military or the industrial complex that threatens our freedom, it is the marxists in our own gubmint.

[dfwgator]

Definitely in the Top Five of Best Presidents, ever.

[dfwgator]

Back when Presidents didn’t feel the need to micro-manage.