On 17 January 1961, three days before he left office, President, Dwight D. Eisenhower issued a warning that reverberated throughout the decade. To defend its freedom in the Cold War era, he pointed out, America had created "an immense military establishment and a large arms industry" that was "new to the American experience." Then he explained the consequence of this military * build-up and expressed his greatest fear: The total influence— economic, political, even spiritual —- is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government. . . . In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise exists and will persist. The forces created to preserve American freedom had, ironically, the power to destroy it, and the only solution to this dilemma, Eisenhower said...