Eisenhower’s timely warnings
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the farewell address of President Eisenhower, the so-called “military-industrial complex” speech. Eisenhower warned Americans that “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.” He then went on:
the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity…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…in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite…
As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, 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 spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
In 1960, military spending was 9.3% of the $525 billion GDP or about $48 billion. $48 billion was a huge amount of money in 1960. Indeed, it was over half of the entire federal budget of $92 billion. So Ike was properly concerned at the concentration of power this represented. Of course the military has contracted significantly since then. In 2009, even with the US being involved in two wars, military spending is just 17% of federal outlays of $4 trillion, and has shrunk by half as a percent of the US GDP of $14 trillion. So in may ways, the military-industrial complex is a shadow of its former self.
What of Eisenhower’s other warnings: (a) He warned of a “scientific-technological elite” for whom “a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity.” Who might come to mind in that regard? (b) Eisenhower’s other warning was “plundering” tomorrow in service of today. He said that we “cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage.” Prescient fellow.