President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address of January 17, 1961 was brought up in a Joe Rogan podcast. Advanced though my age may be, I really have no memory of his Presidency. You may have never heard a President give a heartfelt, moving speech in your lifetime. Here’s your opportunity.

If you can’t spare 15 minutes of time, there are much shortened versions available that highlight the “military industrial complex” portion of the speech. That would be shortchanging yourself.



Unfortunately, Eisenhower’s warning went unheeded. The incestuous relationship between defense manufacturers, the military, and Washington DC has become deeply embedded. I don’t know if Eisenhower was a great President, he doesn’t seem to be mentioned in lists of “the best,” but he certainly seems to be thoughtful, eloquent and in possession of transcending leadership qualities as evidenced during World War II.

This farewell covers much more than the warning.

ETA: a quick search reveals that President Eisenhower has steadily been climbing in polls ranking the Presidents. He’s now solidly in the top 10 and commonly ranked 5th or 6th among those who held the office.

He was certainly in a position to understand this better than anybody, given the various positions he occupied and his life experiences.

I like IKE. When people say something like, "if you could have dinner with anyone living or dead," I don't know if I could decide but General Eisenhower is in my top 10.

I've watched this before and I just watched it again. Wise words from a wise man.


I'm a southerner through and through and don't like the idea of renaming any forts or bases, but Fort Eisenhower in place of Gordon I can make peace with.

I watched the TV drama of him featuring Tom Seleck and the thing I remember and relate to is the famous picture of Ike meeting with the Rangers just before they boarded planes to drop into France on D Day.. in the show it was revealed that Ike had just been informed that it was determined that most if not all of them would be killed. That is not saying anything bad about Ike.. it was war and and that is a fact of war and generals know this. I read a book a while back about the problem of how we got bogged down after D Day and Ike finally got the Army Air Corps to step up... I forget how many hundreds of square miles it was, but we carpet bombed it all for several days and killed every living thing on it... German soldiers, animals, insects... and civilians....

It is telling his warning about the Industrial Military Complex.... lots here bitched about all the stuff we left in Afghanistan... well guess what ...now we need to replace it all... and invent stuff that is better than what we left.