Prescient Presidents: JFK and Ike warning us 45 years ago.

[StrictlyRockers]

I can only hope that there are none here who will not hear the poignancy of the words spoken here. It is as though he is advising us, even today, on the problems that he faced as an American President. Every President has this same problem of facing down an arms industry that promotes itself through encouraging friction.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlEqtaWpKEU">Kennedy on Secrecy and Freedom of the Press

"The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings." - John F. Kennedy

Well, he is not the only former President who speaks great wisdom from the past about the problems facing us today. What are they trying to warn us of? Do they have some prescient foreknowledge of what lays in store for the United States gpvernment and its citizens?

Eisenhour said it well in his closing address to the nation:
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
<...>
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 militaryindustrial 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.
<...>

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.
<...>

Here's a link to a video of the speech with some annoying dramaic music played over it:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4340349985118918525&q=eisenhower+military&hl=en

Here's a couple of links to the whole speech, no annoying music. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgKy8Hl6AMg

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1520506247286790466&q=eisenhower+military+industrial&hl=en

These speeches are both 45 years old, but they ring with more truths and wisdoms than the last ten years worth of speeches I've heard from any politician. No one would dare talk about this stuff with this degree of clarity and forthrightness. You will never hear about it. It has become the problem they warned it would be. It's a big problem, imho. It seems to me like the arms industry practically owns the Republican party. With some help from Big Oil, Big Pharm and a few others, they tell this government what to do. They control all three branches of the US government Problem!!

SR


"Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe." - Abraham Lincoln

"Government ought to be all outside and no inside . . . Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety." - Woodrow Wilson

"Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right and a desire to know." - John Adams

"When you can't do any housecleaning because everything that goes on is a damned secret, why, then we're on our way to something the Founding Fathers didn't have in mind. Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix." - Harry S. Truman

"When information which properly belongs to the public is systematically withheld by those in power, the people soon become ignorant of their own affairs, distrustful of those who manage them, and - eventually - incapable of determining their own destinies." -Richard Nixon
(Oh really, Dick? -SR)

[orpupilofnature57]

1. This speech probably was the very thing that pushed Them over the edge

He speaks directly to Poppy and his ilk.

[StrictlyRockers]

2. It sure does. It's like they were thinking about the Bush family.

[StrictlyRockers]

3. Secrecy is anathema to healthy governance.

"Let's say (someone) .... was recruited by someone in the CIA. The man who recruited him would know, wouldn't he?"

Allen Dulles: "Yes, but he wouldn't tell."
<...>
McCloy: "Wouldn't he tell it to his own chief?"

Dulles: "He might or might not."

Ok, boys and girls, repeat after me. Can you say..

*Secret cabal shadow government*
*Corporatocracy*
*Corporatism*
*Fascism*
*Rule by the Military-Industrial Complex*

Call it what you will. I am taking my country back!

-SR

The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings." - John F. Kennedy