This well-researched posting is almost two years old, but nothing much has changed…BPR Editor
Kitty Reporter's Blog: Hot Cat's Meaow Topics
President Dwight Eisenhower cautioned Americans regarding the military industrial complex. In his parting speech to Americans when he left office in January 17, 1961, Eisenhower said:
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 the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex.
U.S. and Worldwide Military Expenditures
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the United States military expenditures are 46.51% of all worldwide…
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thebigpicturereport ™ 
I don’t see how his speech was dishonest, Gary. It’s just that he told the truth as he was leaving office. Better late than never. It’s kind of like Jimmy Carter, he could be honest and free to do good things after he left office. It’s not a good excuse and I agree that Eisenhower was not a great president, and in some ways a bad one. But some of his speeches were awesome. For example: ” Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
He had a good speech writer Kitty. True, he could have asked for a different speech to be written.
But I must tell you that my animus toward Ike is hardly limited to him. One of these days i’m going to write an article, “An American Legacy: Her Deadly Presidents.” History can’t be erased, but it can be denied, rationalized or never read. I’m reading the very best book on US History. Can you guess who the author (RIP) is? His initials are HZ. It’s a very informative but depressing read.
Btw, I like your blog. Can i add it to the blogger’s section on my website, http://www.uschamberofdemocracy.com? Being on it won’t get you into trouble. Arlen is on it.
Best,
Gary
democracypower@bellsouth.net
Coincidentally, I’ve been browsing through Howard Zinn’s People’s History of late (reading about McCarthyism this morning).
By the way, Chris Hedges is a good successor to HZ, in my opinion.
It just occurred to me, Gary, that you were writing to the Kitty Reporter’s Blog. Click the link on the article, which will bring you to her (his) web page.
I wish people would stop genuflecting Ike. His farewell speech was dishonest, disingenuous and cowardly. As President he presided over the Cold War complex. As President he and the nefarious Dulles brothers via the CIA orchestrated covert coups d’etat against democratically elected leaders for the benefit of US multinational corporations (.e.g., United Fruit Co.).