Military-Industrial Complex

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) delivered his presidential farewell address on January 17, 1961: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” Speechwriters Malcolm Moos and Ralph Williams, according to William Safire, had the term “military-industrial-scientific complex” in an early draft. Papers of Malcom Moos that were released by the National Archives in December 2010 show that an early version was “war-based industrial complex,” and then “vast military-industrial complex.”
 
The term “military industrial complex” has been cited in print from 1931 and 1957 (referring to the Soviet Union), and also from December 1960 (referring to the Pentagon).
 
 
Wikipedia: Military-industrial complex
Military–industrial complex (MIC) is a concept commonly used to refer to policy relationships between governments, national armed forces, and the industrial sector that supports them. These relationships include political approval for research, development, production, use, and support for military training, weapons, equipment, and facilities within the national defense and security policy. It is a type of iron triangle.
 
The term is most often played in reference to the military of the United States, where it gained popularity after its use in the farewell address speech of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, though the term is applicable to any country with a similarly developed infrastructure.
 
It is sometimes used more broadly to include the entire network of contracts and flows of money and resources among individuals as well as institutions of the defense contractors, The Pentagon, and the Congress and executive branch. This sector is intrinsically prone to principal-agent problem, moral hazard, and rent seeking. Cases of political corruption have also surfaced with regularity.
 
A similar thesis was originally expressed by Daniel Guérin, in his 1936 book Fascism and Big Business, about the fascist government support to heavy industry. It can be defined as, “an informal and changing coalition of groups with vested psychological, moral, and material interests in the continuous development and maintenance of high levels of weaponry, in preservation of colonial markets and in military-strategic conceptions of internal affairs”
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Origin of the term
President of the United States (and former General of the Army) Dwight D. Eisenhower used the term in his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961:
 
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction…
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 statehouse, 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. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. 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.
 
In the penultimate draft of the address, Eisenhower initially used the term military-industrial-congressional complex, and thus indicated the essential role that the United States Congress plays in the propagation of the military industry. But, it is said, that the president chose to strike the word congressional in order to placate members of the legislative branch of the federal government. The phrase began as “war-based” industrial complex before becoming “military” in later drafts. The actual authors of the term were Eisenhower’s speechwriters Ralph E. Williams and Malcolm Moos. Shortly after Eisenhower’s address, the issue of military-industrial-congressional influence came to the forefront after Kennedy canceled the B-70 bomber on March 28, 1961. After appropriations bills had been passed and signed with B-70 funding that Kennedy would not use, the House Armed Services Committee (with 21 members having B-70 work in their districts) subsequently attempted to “direct” — by law — the Executive Branch to use “the full amount” appropriated for the B-70. However, a March 19, 1962 eleventh hour White House Rose Garden agreement by chairman Carl Vinson retracted the language from the appropriations bill, and the B-70 cancellation remained permanent.
     
Wikipedia: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower (pronounced /ˈaɪzənhaʊər/ EYE-zən-how-ər; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961, and the last to be born in the 19th century. During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.
 
A Republican, Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race to counter the isolationism of Sen. Robert A. Taft, and to crusade against “Communism, Korea and corruption”. He won by a landslide, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson and ending two decades of the New Deal Coalition holding the White House. As President, Eisenhower concluded negotiations with China to end the Korean War. He maintained pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, gave priority to inexpensive nuclear weapons and reduced the other forces to save money. He had to play catch-up in the Space Race after the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957. On the domestic front, he helped remove Joseph McCarthy from power but otherwise left most political actions to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. Eisenhower did not end New Deal policies, and in fact enlarged the Social Security, and signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. He was the first term-limited president in accordance with the 22nd Amendment. His two terms were peaceful, and generally prosperous except for a sharp economic recession in 1958–59. Historians typically rank Eisenhower among the ten greatest U.S. presidents.
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
military-industrial complex n. (orig. and chiefly U.S.)
(a) an aggregation of military and industrial installations located in a particular area; 
(b) spec. a nation’s armed forces and industries as a whole, regarded as a powerful vested interest and a strong influence on government.
1931 Internat. Affairs July 442   It would require retirement to the stronghold of a *military industrial complex capable of supplying an army of millions with munitions of war.
1953 Mil. Affairs 17 74/1   Shreveport was the heart of a military-industrial complex that extended west to Marshall, Texas, and northwest to Jefferson, Texas.
1961 D. Eisenhower in N.Y. Times 18 Jan. 22/4   In the councils of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
 
Google Books
The Soviet five-year plan and its effect on world trade
By Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker
London: John Lane
1931
Pg. 72:
To-day it would mean retirement to the scene of vast industrial development. To-morrow it would mean retirement to the stronghold of a military industrial complex capable of supplying an army of millions with all the munitions of war from the raw ore to the finished steel, the tanks and guns and chemicals of the future conflict.
   
9 August 1945, Billings (MT) Gazette, “400 Superforts Blast Japan,” pg. 2, col. 3:
The Tokyo arsenal area, comprising the greatest military-industrial complex in the Japanese empire, is made up of gunpowder and munitions works, warehouses, research laboratories, arsenals, barracks and ordnance plants.
     
8 January 1957, Elyria (OH) Chronicle-Telegram, pg. 2, col. 3:
Kremlin’s Power-Salvaging Effort
Comes Too Late, Diplomats Believe
Article Two of a Series
By HOWARD HANDLEMAN
I. N. S. Chief European Correspondent
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In Moscow the rulers dumped the economic planner who had been working toward the dream of a military industrial complex that would dominate the world.
 
Google News Archive
16 December 1960, Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel, “As We See It: Worthy Pick” (editorial), pt. 1, pg. 20, col. 1:
Robert S. McNamara, the nominee of President-elect Kennedy for secretary of defense, is a mild-mannered but tough-minded egghead who bridged the gulf between the academic and industrial worlds not only surely but swiftly.
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His knowledge of the technical world and his incessant demand for facts promise well for his administration of the 40 billion dollar budget and the military-industrial complex of the Pentagon.
 
Google Books
Safire’s Political Dictionary
By William Safire
New York, NY: Oxford University Press
2008
Pg. 429:
military-industrial complex A combination of forces that, left unchecked, it was (Pg. 430—ed.) feared might soon control the U.S. economy and foreign policy.
 
Dwight Eisenhower, who had been a military man and whose best friends were industrialists, startled the nation with his farewell address on January 17, 1961, warning of the danger of military-industrial power. Speechwriters Malcolm Moos and Ralph Williams had drafted the speech for Eisenhower and are credited with having submitted the famous passage. An early draft warned of a “military-industrial-scientific complex,” but science adviser James Killian persuaded the president to omit “science.”
 
New York (NY) Times
In Archive, New Light on Evolution of Eisenhower Speech
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: December 10, 2010
The phrase that would emerge as the most enduring legacy of what became, arguably, the most famous farewell address since George Washington’s evolved over 20 months and was agreed to only a few days before it was delivered.
 
The words, in a speech by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, were transformed from a warning against a “war-based industrial complex” into a “vast military-industrial complex” and finally into a more vanilla “military-industrial complex,” which seemed controversial enough without the qualifier.
 
Documents released Friday by the National Archives shed new light on the genesis of the phrase in the televised address, which Eisenhower delivered on Jan. 17, 1961, three days before his successor’s inauguration.
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The newly released letters, memos and speech drafts — 21 in all — were received by the National Archives from Grant Moos, whose father, Malcolm, was Eisenhower’s special assistant and chief speechwriter.