LewRockwell
The bureaucrats in charge after WWII, fearing a return to the banker/government-caused Great Depression, made a fatal decision. Since it had apparently finally gotten the U.S. out of that disaster, enshrined in National Security Council Report 68 (NSC-68), signed by President Harry S Truman on September 30, 1950, they decided to continue using the manufacture of military materials to pump the economy.
Ten years later, President and Five-star General Dwight Eisenhower caught a glimpse of the result and warned us like this – – –
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial-congressional 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.” –Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address 1961, Public Papers of the Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960, p. 1035- 1040
Called “Military Keynesianism,” political scientist and ex-CIA consultant Chalmers Johnson was among those who solidly nailed the long-term dangers and consequences of using war production to stimulate the economy.
It was clear that the MilitaryIndustrial Complex (MIC) required an enemy, a dastardly villain, as an excuse. They managed to create North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and a few lesser excuses into that needed commodity but these all eventually fell short and fizzled out…
