{"title": "Unwarranted influence", "covers": [9097486], "subject_places": ["United States"], "subjects": ["Military-industrial complex", "Civil-military relations", "History", "Eisenhower, dwight d. (dwight david), 1890-1969", "United states, history, 20th century"], "subject_people": ["Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)"], "key": "/works/OL15473201W", "authors": [{"type": {"key": "/type/author_role"}, "author": {"key": "/authors/OL398605A"}}], "subject_times": ["20th century"], "type": {"key": "/type/work"}, "description": {"type": "/type/text", "value": "In Dwight D. Eisenhower\u02b9s last speech as president, on January 17, 1961, he warned America about the \"military-industrial complex,\" a mutual dependency between the nation\u02b9s industrial base and its military structure that had developed during World War II. After the conflict ended, the nation did not abandon its wartime economy but rather the opposite. Military spending has steadily increased, giving rise to one of the key ideas that continues to shape our country\u02b9s political landscape. In this book, published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of Eisenhower\u02b9s farewell address, journalist James Ledbetter shows how the government, military contractors, and the nation\u02b9s overall economy have become inseparable. Some of the effects are beneficial, such as cell phones, GPS systems, the Internet, and the Hubble Space Telescope, all of which emerged from technologies first developed for the military. But the military-industrial complex has also provoked agonizing questions. Does our massive military establishment--bigger than those of the next ten largest combined--really make us safer? How much of our perception of security threats is driven by the profit-making motives of military contractors? To what extent is our foreign policy influenced by contractors\u02b9 financial interests? -- Publisher description."}, "latest_revision": 6, "revision": 6, "created": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2010-11-16T11:18:36.085801"}, "last_modified": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2026-01-10T17:26:08.463008"}}