The US War Machine
Bloated defense budget harms national security
In his farewell address to the nation on January 17, 1961 President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the increasing influence of the military-industrial complex and counseled US citizens to monitor it vigilantly. As military commander of Allied forces during WWII, Eisenhower, a five-star General of the Army, urged balance between a strong defense and diplomacy.
He was concerned by the vast, and permanent, armaments industry that had emerged after the defense production build-up of the war and warned that the federal government’s collaboration with military and industrial leaders, while necessary, was vulnerable to abuse of power.
Opposition is dangerous
Three days after Eisenhower’s speech, on January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president and he too was concerned about the overreach of the military industrial complex. Kennedy ran afoul of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA for refusing to heed their advice to authorize military intervention in Cuba, Laos, and Berlin. He further antagonized the CIA by firing its first civilian director, Allen W. Dulles, who had overseen coup d’états in Iran and Guatemala as well as the ill-fated Bay of Pigs Invasion.
