The Permanent War

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Eisenhower was certainly no saint. He authorized covert attacks in Southeast Asia, Iran, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Cuba and sent U.S. troops into Lebanon in 1958. But these adventures seem tame compared to what has come since.

Unlike today's neoconservatives -- who actually have more in common with militarist Democrats such as Wilson and Truman -- Eisenhower was a true conservative who believed in less government, a smaller military apparatus, and a balanced budget. He took the long view that runaway military spending would ultimately weaken the economy and that a strong domestic economy was the best engine with which to lead, or dominate, the world. In that sense, Eisenhower was more a globalist than a militarist.

Having a career military man like Eisenhower as president should have been a scary proposition, but it just goes to show that you never can tell; sometimes the lesser of two evils turns out to be the greater evil. And once in a while the military person turns out to be the most forthright. Eisenhower may have been the only president to blow the whistle on the great American swindle. Perhaps he said it best in an April 1953 speech: "Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

War and Work

Military, military-related, and defense-related personnel

Sources: Center for Defense Information Military Almanac, 2001-2002 and the Department of Defense Directorate for Information Operations and Reports. Updated to reflect the most current available numbers.

Reprinted from The Humanist (Nov./Dec. 2004), a magazine of "critical inquiry and social concern." Subscriptions: $24.95/yr. (6 issues) from 1777 T St. NW, Washington, DC 20009; www.americanhumanist.org.

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