 |
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Farewell
Address
January
17, 1961
(Military-Industrial
Complex Speech)
|
|||
|
TO JOIN
|
My
fellow Americans: Three
days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay
down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the
authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. Our
people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on
issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the
future of the Nation. My
own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when,
long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged
to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to
the mutually interdependent during these past eight years. In
this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital
issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere
partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go
forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my
part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together. II We
now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major
wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these
holocausts America is today the strongest, the most influential and most
productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we
yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our
unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our
power in the interests of world peace and human betterment. III Throughout
America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the
peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity
and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be
unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or
our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us
grievous hurt both at home and abroad. Progress
toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now
engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings.
We face a hostile ideology, global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in
purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be
of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so
much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which
enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens
of a prolonged and complex struggle-with liberty at stake. Only thus shall we
remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace
and human betterment. Crises
there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great
or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and
costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties.
A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic
programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and
applied research-these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in
itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel. But
each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need
to maintain balance in and among national programs. balance between the private
and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage, balance
between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our
essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the
individual; balance between action of the moment and the national welfare of the
future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds
imbalance and frustration. The
record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government
have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in
the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly
arise. I mention two only. IV 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. Our
military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my
predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or
Korea. 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 defense;
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 defense 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. 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 huge industrial and
military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that
security and liberty may prosper together. Akin
to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military
posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In
this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized,
complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the
direction of, the Federal government. Today,
the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task
forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion,
the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific
discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly
because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a
substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now
hundreds of new electronic computers. The
prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project
allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be
regarded. Yet,
in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must
also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself
become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. It is
the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other
forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming
toward the supreme goals of our free society. V 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. VI Down
the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of
ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and
hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. Such
a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference
table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral,
economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past
frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield. Disarmament,
with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must
learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent
purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my
official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment.
As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war-as one who
knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so
slowly and painfully built over thousands of years-I wish I could say tonight
that a lasting peace is in sight. Happily,
I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal
has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall
never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road. VII So, in
this my last good night to you as your President, I thank you for the many
opportunities you have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust
that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know
you will find ways to improve performance in the future. You
and I, my fellow citizens, need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under
God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in
devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of
the Nation's great goals. To
all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful
and continuing inspiration: We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.
TO JOIN
|
%20ike.htm_txt_header_lft.gif)
%20ike.htm_txt_header_lft_2.gif)