In praise of… Ike's prescient words

Eisenhower was worried by not just the military's size, but the space it occupied in politics
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Fifty years ago a US president delivered what became one of the most famous farewell speeches in history. It contained the warning that a military-industrial complex had emerged in America, a "permanent armaments industry of vast proportions". That this was said by an old soldier, Dwight Eisenhower, makes it all the more intriguing. He was worried by not just the military's size, but the space it occupied in politics. Early drafts of the speech were truer to his meaning when he talked of a military-industrial-congressional complex. To European eyes, it is striking how in awe of military power American political culture still is, even after the prosecution of two wars which have so spectacularly failed. Much of the deficit George W Bush racked up was down to defence spending, and even today the Republican opposition in Congress is obsessed with trying to save defence spending from budget cuts. America is not alone. It became impossible to disaggregate civilian from military production in the Soviet Union, so entwined was the military-industrial complex in the fabric of the state. The People's Liberation Army in China runs its own show, as Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, discovered on his last trip. Dassault in France and BAE Systems in Britain have both enjoyed inordinate political influence. The arms industry in each country may fall short of creating a shadow garrison state, but its influence is certainly "unwarranted". Ike's words were prescient.

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