[MD] Eisenhowers farewell speech

[Ron Kulp]

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes
have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement,
and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among
nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious
people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension
or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at
home and abroad. 

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the
conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention,
absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology, global in scope,
atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method.
Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To
meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and
transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to
carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a
prolonged and complex struggle-with liberty at stake. Only thus shall we
remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward
permanent peace and human betterment. 

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or
domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that
some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution
to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our
defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in
agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research-these
and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be
suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel. 

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader
consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national
programs. balance between the private and the public economy, balance
between cost and hoped for advantage, balance between the clearly
necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential
requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the
individual; balance between action of the moment and the national
welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of
it eventually finds imbalance and frustration. 

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their
government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded
to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats, new in kind
or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only. 

IV 

A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our
arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential
aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. 

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by
any of my predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting men of
World War II or Korea. 

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no
armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and
as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk
emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to
create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to
this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the
defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than
the net income of all United States corporations. 

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. 

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 huge
industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods
and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. 

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our
industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution
during recent decades. 

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more
formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is
conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government. 

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over
shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing
fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the
fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a
revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs
involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for
intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds
of new electronic computers. 

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal
employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present
and is gravely to be regarded. 

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we
should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that
public policy could itself become the captive of a
scientific-technological elite. 

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate
these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our
democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free
society. 

V 

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As
we peer into society's future, we, you and I, and our government, must
avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease
and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage
the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also
of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive
for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of
tomorrow. 

  

VI 

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that
this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a
community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud
confederation of mutual trust and respect. 

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the
conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are
by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though
scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain
agony of the battlefield. 

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing
imperative. Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with
arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so
sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official
responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment.
As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war-as
one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization
which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years-I
wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight. 

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our
ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a
private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the
world advance along that road. 

VII 

So, in this my last good night to you as your President, I thank you for
the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and
peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for
the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the
future. 

You and I, my fellow citizens, need to be strong in our faith that all
nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be
ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with
power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation's great goals. 

To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to
America's prayerful and continuing inspiration: 

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have
their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity
shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may
experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will
understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are
insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges
of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the
earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live
together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect
and love. 

  Radio-Television Address: January 17, 1961