As the world's most dominant nation and sole country worthy of the hegemonic label, the United States must maintain its military and economic superiority or risk falling from its unparalleled echelon in the world. Such an ultimatum has forced America to develop and continuously support an enormous industry dedicated to arms and war - a situation that has come to be known as the military-industrial complex -- and has required America to repeatedly find (or invent) reasons to use its war machine. Whereas those involved in arms development and distribution used to be the sole beneficiaries of the military industrial complex, today's borderless, global market and rise of the transnational corporation has allowed the complex to grow into a hideously greedy, heartless, often immoral imperialistic monster that uses American military encounters to plow the way for any profit-hungry American corporation with international capabilities. By revisiting a remarkably forethoughtful speech delivered by President Eisenhower in 1961, analyzing Lockheed Martin to depict the influence and power that the arms industry exerts, and investigating how corporations from all industries are now capitalizing (no pun intended) on the military-industrial complex, it should become abundantly clear that President Eisenhower's warning fell upon deaf ears, the military industrial complex has become unreasonably influential and generates a ruthless capitalist imperialism, and the current situation is bad news for anybody concerned with maintaining some semblance of social and ethical standards in business.
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo portrait.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, official portrait as Preside...
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Oval OfficeThe year is 1961. As the Cold War rages, the incompatibility of the clashing ideologies breeds a sense of insecurity, instability, and looming confrontation. Fresh off their contributions during World War II, private companies in the arms and defense industries are still being relied upon to keep America on par or ahead of the Soviets in military capability. In a remarkably visionary address delivered on...