Eisenhower's Farewell Address

Fifty years ago today, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his last speech as Chief Executive, in which he spelled out the fragility of democracy and prosperity in the United States of America and the rest of the world, and how it needed to be protected from the opposition of communism but also safeguarded from the influence of a scientific and political elite emboldened by the growing power of the necessary evil that was the modern armaments industry. He stressed the importance of maintaining a balance of interests and an expansion of knowledge and public awareness to protect liberty at home from this influence. "In the councils of government," President Eisenhower declared, "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."

IN light of a vast military-industrial establishment holding sway over our foreign policy and our ongoing and fruitless struggle in Afghanistan and the waste that has been in the war in Iraq (which has only technically come to end), these words are more important than ever to remember.

Below, in two parts, is the video of President Eisenhower's farewell address to the United States of America, Tuesday, January 17, 1961.