If you’re a fan of politics or history you might recall the legendary quote from President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address delivered 50 years ago today. The speech warned of the rise of a “military industrial complex” that would grow to drain our federal budget by entangling us in a series of nonstop overseas entanglements. Eisenhower’s words have only proven more prophetic in recent years, but one little detail caught my eye recently.
The KAXE Morning Show had a great segment last week featured on their blog, including the archived interview. One of Eisenhower’s top speechwriters was Malcolm Moos, who would go on to be President of the University of Minnesota. It was Moos who wrote that speech for Eisenhower. His final draft was donated to the Eisenhower Library in Kansas.
After Moos’ death, his family found several earlier drafts of the speech in their father’s boat house at his cabin outside Hackensack, Minnesota. He wrote key portions of the speech here in Minnesota. The drafts, containing notes from Eisenhower and others in the administration, show the thinking that lead to the famous line, which Eisenhower fought to keep.
Not so very long ago, The New Yorker ran a piece about this:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/12/20/101220ta_talk_newton