Sixty years ago, President Dwight David Eisenhower gave his farewell address to the nation at the end of his second term as President. Even those who have never heard of President Eisenhower know his phrase “military-industrial complex”. He predicted our current situation and was so prescient.

If you are under the age of forty, you may not have heard of President Eisenhower. He was born in 1890 and raised in Kansas. He was a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He served stateside during World War I:

In Eisenhower’s early army career, he excelled in staff assignments, serving under Generals John J. Pershing and Douglas MacArthur. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington to work on war plans. He commanded the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942; on D-Day, 1944, he was supreme commander of the troops invading France.

After D-Day, he received his fifth star. At the end of the war, he accepted Germany’s unconditional surrender. He was Chief of Staff for the U.S. Army, President of Columbia University and Supreme Commander of the new NATO force. He beat Democrat Adlai Stevenson and was inaugurated President in 1953.

Here in full is President Eisenhower’s farewell address:

The very first paragraph that rocked me back was:

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology-global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle-with liberty at stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.

Of course, President Eisenhower was talking about the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union aimed to eliminate religion, repress its citizens, and spread its sick ideology throughout the world. Thirty plus years later, the triumvirate of President Ronald Reagan, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II finally brought down the Soviet Union. The threat did not end there. It was already here.

The next paragraph blew my mind mind as well:

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small,there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research-these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we which to travel.

Does the phrase “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” sound familiar? Television news was still in its infancy and the first use of the internet was still nearly a decade away or else Eisenhower surely would have included them in his speech.

The next paragraph:

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs-balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage-balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between action of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

No, we are told. The crisis is too big and action must be immediate. There is no time to study alternatives. Money must be spent, action must be taken and rights must be curtailed now or else it will be too late.

Next, Eisenhower discusses the change in the military since even World War II and 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 State corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, 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.

It’s so easy to forget that the armaments industry wasn’t fully born with the birth of our nation. With our elected officials campaigns’ often funded by the armaments industry, the military is often left with unwanted and ill-conceived weaponry paid for by taxpayers in an odd wealth redistribution program.

And, here is the money quote that everyone knows:

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.

This is what I call the Military-Big Tech-Corporate Industrial Complex. And, believe it or not, President Eisenhower saw that too:

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, 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. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

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.

Yet, 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.

Read that paragraph again. Good. Now go back and read it one more time. Universities bleed students and suck in money from government contracts which absolutely effect research outcomes. Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey and Jeff Bezos work hard to stop anyone coming up with new ideas. You can tell they own Congress. Every time they get called in, Congress makes a show and does nothing.

With Covid currently running rampant through our country, if you question scientists, you are a Covid-denier. Same with climate change.

Finally, as our National Debt soars toward 24 trillion today, let’s not forget what President Eisenhower said:

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. 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.

My mind is blown and my mouth is hanging open. I have seen videos of the Inauguration of John F. Kennedy. In the videos, Eisenhower looks like a frail, old man. I never have seen or read this speech. What a brilliant, prescient man he was.

At the risk of being impeached, I want to say we must fight, fight, fight for our country. Teach your children history. We are being led to the slaughter of our nation and, to paraphrase W.F. Buckley, we must stand athwart history and scream, “Hale, no.”

Featured Image: Wikimedia Commons/cropped/Public Domain