Saturday, April 7, 2007

The Military Industrial CONGRESSIONAL Complex?


We have often heard reference made to President Eisenhower's so-called farewell warning to the nation, about the military-industrial complex, upon his leaving office in 1961.

Upon closer examination of that speech, both what it did and did not say, we find that very likely he should have referred to it, more appropriately, as the "Military Industrial Congressional Complex, " as, he apparently really meant. At least, as the following reference would seem to infer.

"In this speech Eisenhower identifies for the first time a group called the military-industrial complex. The speech was written for him by Malcolm Moos of Johns Hopkins University. Initially Moos had used the phrase "Military Industrial Congressional Complex". Eisenhower was advised not to link members of Congress with this conspiracy. He accepted this advice but the fact remains, Eisenhower believed that certain members of Congress were being paid by the armaments industry to maintain these high-levels of defence spending. For example, when Eisenhower left office in 1960 military spending amounted to 77% of all federal spending."

R. W. Gaines
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(see below)
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Part 2: Military Industrial Complex

Dwight Eisenhower's last speech as president on 17th January, 1961, was completely out of character.

This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen...

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 defence; 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 defence establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States 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.

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.

In this speech Eisenhower identifies for the first time a group called the military-industrial complex. The speech was written for him by Malcolm Moos of Johns Hopkins University. Initially Moos had used the phrase "Military Industrial Congressional Complex". Eisenhower was advised not to link members of Congress with this conspiracy. He accepted this advice but the fact remains, Eisenhower believed that certain members of Congress were being paid by the armaments industry to maintain these high-levels of defence spending. For example, when Eisenhower left office in 1960 military spending amounted to 77% of all federal spending.

Eisenhower had warned by this problem by his predecessor, Harry S. Truman. He told Eisenhower: "For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the government... I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak-and-dagger operations. Some of the complications and embarrassment that I think we have experienced are in part attributable to the fact that this quiet intelligence arm of the President has been so removed from its intended role that it is being interpreted as a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue and a subject for cold war enemy propaganda."

Eisenhower had come to the conclusion that there were a small group of men were having "unwarranted influence" in the "councils of government". Who was he talking about? Eisenhower was probably thinking of people like John McCone who at that time was Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. McCone established the California Shipbuilding Company just before the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1946 it was recorded that the company had made $44 million in wartime profits on an original investment of $100,000.

For people like McCone, it was necessary for the United States to continue spending large sums of money on armaments after the war. McCone became the representative of the military-industrial complex in government. In 1948 he was appointed Deputy to the Secretary of Defense. This was followed by his appointment as Under Secretary of the Air Force (1950-1951).

McCone was an ardent Cold War warrior and in 1956 attacked the suggestion made by Adlai Stevenson that there should be a nuclear test ban. At the time this was a view also held by scientists working in this field. McCone accused American scientists of being "taken in" by Soviet propaganda and of attempting to "create fear in the minds of the uninformed that radioactive fallout from H-bomb tests endangers life."

In 1958 Eisenhower appointed McCone as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. However, by the end of his presidency Eisenhower had become very concerned about the role being played by people such as McCone and therefore thought it necessary to give his warning about the Military Congressional Complex.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmccone.htm

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R.W. "Dick" Gaines
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GnySgt USMC (Ret.)
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