Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "16972110",
    "label": "Speech Draft",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/16972110"
}

{
    "id": "16972110",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/16972110",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Speech Draft",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/16972110",
    "collections": [
        "Arthur Larson and Malcolm C. Moos Records",
        "Office Files of Arthur Larson and Malcolm Moos"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/eisenhower/dde-1049/598790/598790_005_01.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/eisenhower/dde-1049/598790/598790_005_01.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/eisenhower/dde-1049/598790/598790_005_01.jpg",
    "imageCount": 9,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/16972110",
    "naId": 16972110,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 21,
            "logicalDate": "1960-12-21",
            "month": 12,
            "year": 1960
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 9,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "document",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/eisenhower/dde-1049/598790/598790_005.pdf",
    "mediaId": "3f6f052d96484223",
    "ocrText": "12/16/60\n12/21/60\nFifty years ago the Congress of the United States first brought\nme into the service of the United States Government with an appoint-\nbetween\nment to West Point. Thus began an association with a young Cadet and\nthe Congress that wound up a half century later in a warm relationship\nbetween a President and the Congress.\nThey have been full years.\nThe past eight years have been without precedent in the history\nof our government. At no time during that period did the party in con-\ntrol of the Executive Branch have what could be called a clear working\nmajority in the Congress. For the last six years the Administration\nfaced Congresses dominated by the opposition in both houses. But we\ndid not fall out into bitter, unreconcilable factions which in other nations\nhave paralyzed the democratic process. Despite our differences we\nworked together, and the business of the nation went forward, and the\nfact that it did so is in large measure a credit to the wisdom, fore-\nbearance, and sense of duty displayed by the Congress.\nFor the generous support tendered to me over all these years\nof war and peace, I wish to express my abiding gratitude. And now in\n177180\nUnited\nE\n- 2\nthis, my last message to the Congress, I wish to address myself particu-\nlarly to some of the problems with which all Americans are gravely\nconcerned and some of the changes -- both internal and external - -- which\ngo to the very roots of our society.\nOne of the deepest concerns of the framers of our Constitution\nwas to make sure that no military group arose to challenge the civil au-\nthority, and that no segment of industry be allowed to develop which was\npermanently and exclusively concerned with building the weapons of war.\nFor a hundred and sixty years, our military posture was char-\nacterized by a very small regular establishment, quickly bolstered in\ntime of emergency by large contingents of militia and reserves, and just\nas quickly reduced upon the return of peace. There was no armaments\nindustry. The makers of plowshares could, when required, make swords\nas well. The Army which I joined in 1911 numbered 84, 000 -- one-tenth\nof its present strength.\nFor many reasons, this has all changed. A great and con-\ntinuing threat to our security made it impossible for us to demobilize\n- 3\nafter the Korean War in the way we had previously done. 3-1/2 million\nAmericans continue to be directly and fully engaged in defense activities.\nIn seven and a half years of nominal peace we have spent for defense a\nsum substantially greater than the cost of World War II, and our na-\ndid\ntional security budget annually exceeds the net income before taxes of\nall United States corporations. And the direct result of this continued\nhigh level of defense expenditures has been to create a permanent arma-\nments industry, of vast proportions, where none had existed before.\nThe conjunction of a large and permanent military estab-\nlishment and a large and permanent arms industry is something totally\nnew in American experience. No thinking citizen would deny the need\nfor such a commitment in today's perilous world; yet none can fail to\nread its grave implications. For this is power -- tremendous economic\nand political power - with a specific and tangible interest in both na-\ntional policy and national strategy. Billions of dollars in purchasing\npower and the livelihood of millions of people are directly involved. Its\ninfluence is felt in every city, in every state house, and by every respon-\nsible official in the Federal government. We can take comfort in the\n- 4 -\nknowledge that none of our basic safeguards has given way. But let\nus take nothing for granted. We shall need all the organizing genius\nwe possess to mesh the huge machinery of our defenses with our peace-\noriented economy so that liberty and security are both well served. It\nrequires constant vigilance, and a jealous precaution against any move\nwhich would weaken the control of civil authority over the military es-\ntablishment. We must be especially careful to avoid measures which\n845\nwould enable any segment of this vast military-industrial complex to\n04\nsharpen the focus of its own power at the expense of the sound balance\nwhich now prevails. The potential for disastrous abuse of power in this\narea is great. Let us watch it carefully.\n199128\n/\n- 5 -\nClosely akin to the sweeping changes in our concept of\nmilitary readiness and indeed, responsible for much of it -- has\nbeen the technological transformation of our society during the past\nfive decades. The term \"revolution\" has been aptly used to describe\nthe fundamental advances in science, technology and engineering which\nare remaking the material basis of our civilization even while we look on.\nTwo facts characterize this research revolution. The first\nis that the process of research has become highly formalized, complex,\nextremely\nand costly. Second, because this is so, a steadily increasing share of\nresearch is conducted for, by, and under the direction of the Federal\ngovernment. For mula has replaced-empiriciom Today The solitary inventor\ntinkering in his shop has been overtaken by a team of scientists in a\nlaboratory. The major impetus to research now comes not from pri-\nvate individuals in pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, but from public\nagencies in pursuit of specific, predetermined results. For every black-\nboard there are a thousand drawing boards.\n0.B\n361\nThis, then, is another change, another challenge to master.\nAs of now, government funds underwrite\nof all research in the\n- 6 -\nUnited States.\nour scientists and\nour engineers are\nengaged in work on government contracts. Many a college and uni-\nversity is in some manner beholden to the Federal government for funds\nneeded to support its own research program. The prospect of domina-\ntion of the nation's research effort by the federal government is a real\nand ever-present one, and deadly serious. For research is the path-\nfinder of progress. Where it leads, all else must follow.\nYet we must also be alert to the opposite danger that public\npolicy may itself become the captive of technological opinions and\npressures. The age old problem of defining the proper roles of the\ngeneralist and the specialist in society have become enormously dif-\nficult in an era when the mechanisms of our civilization have become\nso complex that even the family automobile now defies all but the\nfor\nsimplest of home remedies. But define them we must. It is the\nbusiness of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate the\nforces within the body politic toward the proper goals of a free society.\n- 7 -\nElectrone there\nBut ther is yet another change -- perhaps the most\nmomentous of all -- giving shape to the patterns of tomorrow. Over\npt\nthe past fifty years, a billion people have won their independence,\nand the number of sovereign nations in the world has doubled. But\nthe most important thing about this great emancipation movement is\nthat for the first time in the history of the world, the concept of equal-\nity among nations has come to be recognized as an operating principle\nof international politics. The acceptance of this principle is as yet\npartial and imperfect, but it is there, even among the cynical totali-\ntarians. The representatives of\ncountries sit in the General\nAssembly of the United Nations -- and each, by unanimous agreement --\nstands equal to all the others. Even the Soviet Union pays its respects\nto the expressed will of the majority of the members of the General\nAssembly. The old patterns of naked power politics have been modified\nso that right has at least and at all times a voice against might before the\nbar of world opinion.\nThis is an impressive gain over the conditions of fifty years\nago where small nations had only sufferance rights granted them by the\nUNITED\n- 8 -\ngreat ones. To this new concept of equality we of the United States sub-\nscribe our ardent support. We are pledged to expand and strengthen it,\nso that it may become the sturdy foundation of an increasingly effective\nbody of international law. This is the surest and best approach to the\ngoal of world peace; for without justice there can be no peace, and with-\n07\nout equality there can be no justice.\nMembers of the Congress, my prayer for the future is that the\nworld in which we live can be turned from a community of fear into a con-\nfident confederation of mutual trust and respect. The conference table\nmay be marked by a sense of frustration and disappointment with the past,\nyet scarred though it may be, we must not forsake it for the certain\nterrors of nuclear war. The tools of the open society are still available\nto us. We dare not fail to use them. Believing as I do in the fullness of\nthe American character, I have every confidence we shall.\nAnd so I say to you at this time - not goodbye - -- but onward and\nforward into the bright light of peace with justice. So striving, we shall\nbuild a world where not one nation under God, but all nations under God\ncan live in peace and freedom amidst a society in which the scourge of\nwar, poverty, and disease have been banished from the earth.\n."
}