When the forces of Socialism, Fascism, Progressive Corporatism, and Imperialism were beaten back after long and costly fighting in Europe and the Pacific, millions of American men and women came home to a country still touched by all of these evils. These "isms" had grown and prospered in the US from the turn of the century...as they had in Europe and Asia...and had given us the Great Depression and taken root in the media of the day.
These men and women...our parents and grandparents...had seen the damage done to nations when these absurd "utopian dreams" were allowed to run rampant and out of control. Yet there were many in the US who still believed in such "progressive" nonsense.
One of the bravest things these returning, world-wise, Veterans would do was to form a bulwark against the ideas of the nation-state and to take a stand for the individual. They created what would become the modern Conservative movement and they did so by going back to college, opening their own businesses, and by voting their trusted European theatre commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, into the Presidency. He served there for eight years...leaving office in January of 1961 after reducing tax burdens and helping to create a climate where small businesses and individual initiative would thrive.
The speech he made at his leaving is still remembered today...and often quoted out of context or misunderstood...it was his famous "military industrial complex" speech.
When President Eisenhower spoke of the military industrial complex, it was not simply in regard to the defense industry that he was voicing his concern. To those who studied his agenda over the prior eight years, it was obvious he was speaking to the concepts of Corporatism which had dominated American economic planning for the three decades prior to his presidency. It was Progressive Corporatism, coupled with wage and price controls, which had given us the Great Depression and had kept our economy comatose throughout the thirties.
Eisenhower warned us of balance, between the needs of the government and the needs of the individual. To quote:
"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."But there were more threats to individual liberty seen by this world-wisened man. He spoke also of threats to academic freedom and individual initiative. He spoke in warning tones about the coming age of technological revolution:
In these words we recognize that this man had an immediate and true grasp of human nature. He understood how academic freedoms could be thrown away, not only in science and technology, but as it turned out, in the social sciences as well. Even as diplomatic a soldier as Dwight Eisenhower had been...he still spoke as a soldier...spoke what was true and what he saw and feared in the future despite the unpopularity and unpleasantness of that truth."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 overshadowed 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."
And millions more, soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen...heard and took heed. That was nearly fifty years ago...and their legacy has been more than the winning of battles and the securing of freedom by fire. They secured our freedoms at the ballot boxes and in their homes and their businesses. They did so by serving in their State Legislatures, School Boards, and City Councils.
Now many of them are gone...and far too many Americans have no idea what they stood for and why. Far too many Americans are led by fashion and fad, bending to the will of smooth talking orators, taking their responsibilities to choose leaders not as a sacred and honorable duty, but as a popularity contest and in a party atmosphere.
There was one more warning "Ike" left us with...one of great prescience when viewed against the current administration, this congress, and their economic "policies."
"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."
This was the wisdom given us by "the greatest generation"...the men and women who lived through the Great Depression...the most terrible war ever imagined...and came out the other end with a renewed respect and love for their nation and for its constitution. They are remembered and honored by many of us. And to those of us who remember; it is our duty to reach out and teach those who don't...to tell about who these Veterans were...not only those who fell in battle, but those who came home and rebuilt an America which had, in many ways, lost its way.
It was an America forged anew by the fires of World War...and recalled to its original purpose and direction by those whose steel was tempered on the battlefields. Let us take a moment on this Memorial Day, 2009, to remember them and all of those who have given so much...and to set ourselve to take up their burden and do our part to preserve the liberty they bought for us at such cost.
The Professor
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