Ending the debate: Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address not as haphazard as many historians thought
Editorial Board member Jim Newton is wrapping up work on his biography of President Eisenhower. In his research, he discovered the insightful tale of Eisenhower's farewell address, a story that begins with "boxes full of pine needles, acorns, and mouse droppings, and [that] smelled of campfires." The boxes, recovered last fall from a Minnesota boathouse, belonged to Eisenhower's speechwriter Malcom Moos and in them contained the answer to questions that historians have been debating for years.
Newton writes:
Some historians have regarded the Farewell Address as an afterthought, hastily composed at the end of 1960 as an adjunct to the 1961 State of the Union. Others have regarded it as the soulful expression of an aging President who was determined to warn the American people of dangers ahead. But the Moos papers make clear that the address, far from being an afterthought, was among the most deliberate speeches of Eisenhower’s Presidency. Regarded in his day as inarticulate and detached, Eisenhower in these papers is fully engaged, grappling with the language of the text and the radical questions that it raised. […]
Eisenhower was a rigorous editor. Major speeches such as the State of the Union might be refined ten or twelve times. Even by those standards, however, the Farewell Address was special. Eisenhower personally rewrote the opening passages, and his brother Milton overhauled the entire speech. It was batted back and forth for months; in the end, it underwent twenty-nine drafts (twenty-one previously unknown drafts were found in the boathouse papers).
Learn more about the newly discovered documents, which "[rejoin] history just in time for the fiftieth anniversary of Eisenhower's address," in Newton's article over at The New Yorker.
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Papers shed new light on Eisenhower's farewell address
-- Alexandra Le Tellier
We need more Republicans like him, and less of what we now have.
Posted by: Jim | December 11, 2010 at 09:19 AM
Ike knew exactly what he was doing when he gave us his warning. He was a brave man, a military man at that, who took a great risk saying what he did. No one else in power, with the exception of Kennedy's warning about secret societies, has taken the same risk since.
Thanks, President Eisenhower!
Posted by: EAGD | December 11, 2010 at 12:28 PM
He was so good at being a President because he was so good at managing the war effort in Europe and for the values and courage learned as a professional soldier.
The Republicans we have now are a bunch on Nancy-boy Frat Rats who talk tough but either have never served or didn't finish their commitment. With the lack of teaching of ethics, courage, duty and self-sacrifice available to young men and women in the military, the end result is obvious.
Want a couple of real Senators? Senator Jim Webb (Former Decorated Marine) and Claire McCaskill (Former Prosecuting Attorney). They understand Duty, Selfless Service, and Honor.
Posted by: SFC Ret | December 11, 2010 at 12:48 PM
I like Ike and I would like him even more had he done something during the 8 years of his presidency to forestall the primacy the military industrial complex enjoys today, something to better educate Americans of the danger of the MIC and something to convince the MIC of it's proper place in the scheme of things. Free no log-in editorial cartoons featuring Major General Electric and more http://www.saintpeterii.com
Posted by: Saint Peter II | December 12, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Society shouldn't be a large mongoloid or robotic slime-mold head. Umbrellacorp, Skynet, or Racoon city could happen. All hope lies in the proletariet stated George Orwell. A metropolis Eden could also be a nightmare.
You have to choose what you want. I'm starting to think twice before I do something.
Posted by: Ranarshamala | December 12, 2010 at 07:47 PM
from the same speech -- the part everyone ignores:
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.
Posted by: InfoSherpa | December 12, 2010 at 11:31 PM