ABSTRACT

As part of his farewell address on 17 January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized that in the aftermath of World War II and at the dawn of the Cold War, the United States faced a dire menace abroad in the form of the Soviet Union and a less visible but equally dangerous threat within its own borders, which he memorably referred to as “the military-industrial complex”.1Eisenhower viewed the military-industrial complex as an outgrowth of a growing and sinister relationship among government agencies, the military and the defence industries, and believed that it made a mockery out of democratic values while undermining the foundation of democratic institutions and civic society.2