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January 17th, 2011 will mark the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower’s famous farewell address in which he warned against the perils of the military-industrial complex. Today the New America Foundation [2], a Ploughshares grantee, hosted a panel discussion [3] on this topic to mark the release of William D. Hartung [4]’s book entitled Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex.
Hartung is the Director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. He was joined on the panel by Gordon Adams [5] of the Stimson Center, David Berteau [6] of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Danielle Brian [7] of the Project on Government Oversight.
In 1961 Eisenhower spoke of “unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, of the military industrial complex,” and by 1966 the military budget exceeded $300 billion. Hartung’s book recounts the story of one major recipient of these Defense Department dollars, Lockheed Martin. Showing a history of powerful influence over US policy, Hartung provides a clear picture of the military-industrial complex at work.
As the fiscal year 2011 budget [8] request for the Defense Department stands at over $708 billion, Eisenhower’s message clearly remains relevant in our time.
Links
[1] https://ploughshares.org/file/2218
[2] http://www.newamerica.net/
[3] http:// http://www.newamerica.net/events/2011/military_industrial_complex
[4] http://newamerica.net/user/22
[5] http://www.stimson.org/experts/gordon-adams/
[6] http://csis.org/expert/david-j-berteau
[7] http://www.pogo.org/press-room/staff-experts.html
[8] http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/factsheet_department_defense/
[9] http://www.newamerica.net/events/2011/military_industrial_complex