A TALE OF TWO SPEECHES – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  A warning:  You are going to have a lot of pseudo-history thrown at you this week.  Brace yourselves, cover your ears.

Today is the 50th anniversary of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation.  Thanks to the political left, it has become known as the "industrial-military complex" speech.  The left just loved the idea that this former five-star general was warning about a new military-industrial complex...conveniently ignoring the fact that Eisenhower, in the same speech, said that it was necessary.

There will be much pompous foolery – it's already begun – examining the wisdom of Dwight Eisenhower's warning by people who don't realize that the admonition turned out to be a false alarm.  Defense spending, as a proportion of our GNP, is dramatically lower today than in 1961, and we have only a tenth of the men and women under arms than we had in World War II.  We haven't had a draft in almost 40 years.

Thursday will mark the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's inaugural address, probably the most quoted inaugural since FDR's "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" first inaugural, delivered in 1933.  Pundits will compare Eisenhower, "the wise old man," with Kennedy, the young idealist.  I'm very curious to see how modern liberals will handle the Kennedy speech, which called, unabashedly, for a powerful military and for America spreading the democratic ideal. 

My suggestion is to ignore the commentary and read the speeches.  Then draw your own conclusions.

Eisenhower's speech is here.  Kennedy's is here.  Enjoy a bit of history by going directly to the sources.

January 17, 2011