President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address
On today’s date in 1961, President Eisenhower delivered a farewell speech warning the nation against the military-industrial (and, originally, congressional) complex:
We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
- President Eisenhower
The President’s address also included another prescient caution:
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.
- President Eisenhower
The full transcript of the address is available here.
The speech is worth watching in full:
