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President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Farewell Speech,

My fellow Americans:

Throughout America’s adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to
foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and
among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to
arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both
at home and abroad.

Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It
commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology — global in scope,
atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger is poses
promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional
and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and
without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle — with liberty the stake. Only thus
shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human
betterment.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a
recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution
to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic
programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research — these and
many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road
we wish to travel.

But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in
and among national programs — balance between the private and the public economy, balance between
cost and hoped for advantage — balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable;
balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the
individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment
seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main,
understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of stress and threat. But threats,
new in kind or degree, constantly arise. I mention two only.

IV.
A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for
instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime,
or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of
plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk
emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments
industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged
in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all
United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American
experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State
house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development.
Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all
involved; so is the very structure of our society.
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.
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.

Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the
technological revolution during recent decades.

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.

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old,
within the principles of our democratic system — ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free
society.

VI.
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing
smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud
confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the
same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table,
though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how
to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so
sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of
disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war — as one who
knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built
over thousands of years — I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made.
But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the
world advance along that road.

VII.
So — in this my last good night to you as your President — I thank you for the many opportunities you
have given me for public service in war and peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy;
as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.

You and I — my fellow citizens — need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the
goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with
power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation’s great goals.
To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America’s prayerful and continuing
aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that
those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may
experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy
responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of
poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of
time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect
and love.

Questions for understanding: