Dwight Eisenhower in Healing the Soul of America

On Homeland Security: 1961: Permanent armaments industry has grave implications

"We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Now 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."

While Eisenhower's comments were made in the middle of the Cold War, we clearly did not heed his warnings, either then or later. Since that time, our military expenditures have steadily increased to the point where they are 54 percent of all discretionary federal funds.

On Welfare & Poverty: 1953: Every warship launched is theft from the hungry

Are we being served or are we being robbed? Are we being protected or are we being turned into a militaristic nation whose citizens are being led to believe that brute force rather than adherence to our values is the fulcrum of security?

In 1953, alert to the dangers of a permanent armaments industry, President Eisenhower said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who are hungry and not fed, those who are cold and not clothed."

In truth, our military budget is more an expression of the financial appetites of our military-industrial complex than it is a truly wise response to admittedly very real threats.