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DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
FAREWELL ADDRESS President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address (1961) 
Citation: Farewell address by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 17, 1961; Final TV Talk 1/17/61 (1), Box 38, Speech Series, Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower as President, 1953-61, Eisenhower Library; National Archives and Records Administration Original article: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I was in my last year as an undergraduate at Cambridge when this speach was given. I was a spectator outside the UN when President Eisenhower drove past in an open car to deliver his address to the UN General Assembly in September of 1960. He was standing up in an open limousine ... a Lincoln Continental as I recall ... something that changed a few years later after President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Fast forward some 60+ years and the issue of the 'military industry complex' continues ... but it is probably 10 times as problematic in 2023 as it was in 1960. I have been concerned about a variety of issues in modern management metrics ... social, environmental and economic ... for a very long time. The matter got on my agenda in the 1980s ... actually the late 1970s ... when I did my first consulting assignment for the world bank. There are simply no effective 'management metrics' in any field of economic activity except the 'profit metric' in a public companty [where a public company is a publicly traded company listed on a stock exchange!]. The idea that 'more and more corporate profit' is a measure of economic health is insane ... but it is what we have had for all of my adult lifetime (more than 60 years!!!!!!!). The military industry complex that worried President Eisenhower has become an even bigger problem over time. It has all the problems of monopoly but more and bigger because of the scale of the very few supplier enterprises and the nature of the military and government procurement procedures. The financial oversight by those responsible for this activity seem to be almost totally absent even though the financial sums involved are huge ... in $ trillions ... which is a hard to image financial scale! At one point in my career I did some consulting work for one of the big corporate players in the military industry complex ... specifically to consider the marketing of some electronic hardware for use in the civilian market rather than only by the military. The product had a 'cost' of around $140 each between the manufacturer and the military user. My conclusion was that the item would need to have a cost of around $50 to be widely used in the civilian market. This did not make me a hero and I did not work for this company again. I was right, however and relatively soon a similar product got deployed in the civilian market at a price of $30 each! One has to wonder how much of the 'price' in the products of the companies in the 'military industry complex' is either pure profit or massive sloppiness. My feeling is that there is space for a lot of both! Several years ago (in the late 1980s / early 1990s) this issue was part of my 'agenda' and in this context I spent a certain amount of time in Washington DC. I was an active participant in a group called the 'International Consortium on Government Financial Management - ICGFM) which was working to address the problem of 'accounting and accountability' in the public sector worldwide. it was an 'eye-opener' for me because I had been working since the mid-60s ... more than 20 years ... around this subject in the private sector including a lot of work related to the compuerization of accounting and routine operations and management practices. It was disturbing the learn a little of the inner working of 'government', 'politics', 'bureaucracy' and 'people and careers' and see how all of this suited the companies that made up the 'military industry complex'! Peter Burgess | ||
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address (1961)
On January 17, 1961, in this farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the establishment of a 'military-industrial complex.' In a speech of less than 10 minutes, on January 17, 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower delivered his political farewell to the American people on national television from the Oval Office of the White House. Those who expected the military leader and hero of World War II to depart his Presidency with a nostalgic, 'old soldier' speech like Gen. Douglas MacArthur's, were surprised at his strong warnings about the dangers of the 'military-industrial complex.' As President of the United States for two terms, Eisenhower had slowed the push for increased defense spending despite pressure to build more military equipment during the Cold War’s arms race. Nonetheless, the American military services and the defense industry had expanded a great deal in the 1950s. Eisenhower thought this growth was needed to counter the Soviet Union, but it confounded him. Though he did not say so explicitly, his standing as a military leader helped give him the credibility to stand up to the pressures of this new, powerful interest group. He eventually described it as a necessary evil. A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be might, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. . . . 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. . . . This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . 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.The end of Eisenhower’s term as President not only marked the end of the 1950s, but also the end of an era in government. A new, younger generation was rising to national power that would set a more youthful, vigorous course. His farewell address was a warning to his successors of one of the many things they would have to be wary of in the coming years.
| The text being discussed is available at | https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address and |