Dec 9, 20226 min read

Ike and the Military Industrial Complex - a Guest Post

Updated: Dec 12, 2022

A Guest Post by M. B. Zucker

Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address as President of the United States on January 17, 1961, is considered the most important speech of his life. It embodied his centrist philosophy and articulated its application both to domestic and foreign policy. The foreign policy section became its main legacy. It’s where Eisenhower (Ike) coined the term “Military Industrial Complex.” The term has been used and interpreted by various political factions since his address. This article shall look at Ike’s history with defense spending to better appreciate the term’s origins and intent.

Ike was an aide to Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur in the 1930s. President Hoover asked MacArthur to draft a report about how to mobilize America’s economy and manpower as a contingency for a major war. MacArthur delegated the task to Ike. Ike wrote the report and focused on how the government and armament-manufacturing corporations would work together. This document became the War Department’s go-to source on how to convert the peacetime economy to a wartime basis. President Roosevelt and Army Chief of Staff George Marshall put it into effect during WWII when they transformed America into an “Arsenal of Democracy.” Thus began America’s permanent large-scale standing military.

As Army Chief of Staff, Ike sought to reduce the Marine Corps to conducting “small naval raises, minor landings, and traditional security duties.” He thought the Army demonstrated its ability to conduct large amphibious landings in the European Theater of WWII, such as Operation Overlord. He believed America could not “afford to provide and maintain two great forces, both of which have identical missions, conducting great landing operations.” Ike preferred to abolish the Marine Corps altogether, but feared a public backlash to that idea.

The Truman Administration initially sought to demobilize the military after WWII, which America had done after every previous war. But Truman quickly grasped America’s new role as a global leader and the need to contain the Soviet Union. These required a large, standing military. Truman initially tried to limit the peacetime military’s size. But the administration approved a memorandum titled NSC 68. This document described the Soviet Union as an existential threat and recommended quadrupling the military budget. Truman authorized this request when the Korean War began. The defense budget grew exponentially. Ike brought this growth under control and cut military spending by 27% after the Korean War ended.

Some critics, led by Senator Taft, wanted even more cuts to defense spending. Ike ignored these arguments and did not allow a large-scale military demobilization once the Korean War ended. A large military was still needed for the Cold War and America’s new role as a global leader. He wanted to find the proper balance between the nation’s security and economic needs. He called this balance the Great Equation.

He gave “The Chance for Peace” speech in April 1953, a month after Stalin died. Ike extended his hand to the post-Stalin Soviet leadership and said ending the Cold War was in both superpowers’ interest. “Atomic war” was the worst-case scenario of a perpetual arms race. The best-case scenario was “a life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of strength that defies the American system or the Soviet system or any system to achieve true abundance and happiness for the peoples of this earth.” The Soviet government was paralyzed following Stalin’s death and so the arms race continued.

Ike, a fiscal conservative, feared a large national debt and inflation. His nightmare scenario was that America would spend more on the military than it could afford out of fear and hostility toward the Soviets. This was not sustainable and required the government to establish long-term wage and price controls, leading to government control of the economy and a dictatorship. He called this potential outcome a “garrison state.”

He thought fiscal restraint and a balanced budget was part of America’s national security strategy. There could be no defense for a country that bankrupted itself. Treasury Secretary Humphrey said Ike was more afraid of deficits than of the communists. The military establishment resisted this mentality. Four Army Chiefs of Staff quit during Ike’s tenure over disagreements on defense spending. Ike’s efforts to simultaneously contain communism while balancing the budget led to the New Look, where Ike threatened to use nuclear weapons to deter Soviet aggression. Nuclear weapons were cheaper than maintaining large conventional forces, letting Ike reduce the debt. This cheaper form of containment allowed America to contain the Soviet Union until it collapsed in 1991. This makes Ike a major architect of the West’s victory in the Cold War.

Ike was effective at evaluating the defense budget. He feared having too many foreign bases could become expensive. He also identified unnecessary spending projects, saying in one instance, “What do the marines need with an aircraft carrier?” Ike resented how each branch overstated why they needed more spending. They accused those who disagreed of treason. For example, the Air Force kept increasing the number of bomber groups it needed to keep the country safe. This didn’t mean Ike didn’t appreciate the need to keep the military up-to-date. He knew military technology was always changing and that countries which didn’t update their militaries did so at their own peril.

The Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957. They’d won the first victory of the Space Race and, more importantly, could soon have an ICBM that could launch across the Atlantic. A panic broke out across America. The administration organized a panel of scientists and military experts to assess the situation. The result was the Gaither Report, which said America would not survive the decade unless the government built fall-out shelters across the country and the rest of the economy was put into military spending. Ike thought this was an enormous overreaction. The Gaither Report recommended turning America into a garrison state. Secretary of State Dulles was the only member of the National Security Council to agree with Ike. Ike rejected the report’s advice. Someone leaked the report and Ike was nationally criticized. It was the only time his approval rating went below 50%. Kennedy and other Democrats said Ike was irresponsible and that they would have authorized it. Even his Army friends said he was wrong. This cost him political capital and credibility in foreign policy. He refused to increase military spending, and instead, convinced Congress to create NASA and invest in education as the nation’s response to Sputnik.

The New Look was not meant to be permanent. Ike wanted to defuse the Cold War and stop the arms race, but Khrushchev exploited the U2 Incident to embarrass America and ruined the Paris Summit. Ike had failed to achieve a lasting peace; the large-scale military would continue. He decided to make his concerns about the hazards of a permanent large military the centerpiece of his Farewell Address, which became the most important speech of his life.

The Farwell Address is a centrist manifesto. Ike spoke of balancing rival considerations and priorities, such as, “a balance between current pressures and future goods… Between creature comforts and the maintenance of a national creative capacity depending upon individual initiative.” He warned of easy solutions. The Cold War, and other problems, were long-term issues to be sustainably managed over time. His life and career had trained him to check his impulses, to know what humans were capable of, and to “make our mistakes slowly.” He placed his trust in reason, caution, and moderation.

The Scientific-Technological Elite is an often-overlooked subject of the speech. Ike feared that federal domination of research would narrow the possible areas of scientific progress. He feared government-funded research would detract from private universities and “tinkerers.”

Ike recognized that the Military-Industrial Complex had won WWII and would guarantee America’s victory in the Cold War. He did not dislike the military and would not have approved of the conspiracy theorists that describe all wars as the result of a criminal arms lobby. But he feared what too much defense spending would do to the national debt and the potential threat it posed to democracy. Ike’s solution was a knowledgeable citizenry who would keep the Military-Industrial Complex in check, avoid bankrupting the economy, and play an active role in the world without engaging in unnecessary wars.

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