by Jacob G. Hornberger

July 22, 2026

In his 1961 Farewell Address, President Dwight Eisenhower issued a remarkable warning to the American people. He stated:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. . . .Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. . . . 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 of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Ike was making two critically important points:

First, the military-industrial complex — or what is known today as the national-security state — was a relatively new governmental structure for the United States, one that came into existence after World War II and without even the semblance of a constitutional amendment.

America started out as a limited-government republic, which is a governmental structure that is totally different from a national-security state. It was a structure in which the federal government was small and weak. The powers of the federal government were limited to those few powers enumerated in the Constitution. To make sure federal officials got the point, the American people enacted the Bill of Rights, which expressly restricted the powers of federal officials.

Second, this new governmental structure to which Ike referred posed a grave threat to the freedom, well-being, and democratic processes of the American people. That’s what Ike meant when he stated, “We must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.”

The Framers and our 18th-century American ancestors shared Eisenhower’s sentiments. They were fiercely opposed to “standing armies” because they were convinced that the biggest threat to people’s freedom and well-being lay not with some foreign regime or foreign entity but rather with their very own government, especially one with an enormously powerful military establishment with the ability to impose its will on the citizenry.

In fact, if the Constitution had proposed a national-security state, there is no doubt whatsoever that our American ancestors would have rejected it, in which case the country would have continued operating under the Articles of Confederation, another type of governmental structure, one in which the federal government’s powers were so weak that it didn’t even have the power to tax.

Everything changed after World War II, when the federal government was converted into a national-security state as part of the old Cold War racket that was based on the ludicrous notion that there was an international communist conspiracy based in Moscow, Russia, one in which the Reds were supposedly coming to America and taking over the United States.

The federal government was now to be characterized by an enormous and ever-growing military-intelligence establishment, one composed of the Pentagon, a vast and permanent empire of domestic and foreign military bases, an army of voracious “defense” contractors, the CIA, and the NSA.

Most important, this new governmental structure automatically came with omnipotent powers — that is, powers that were not subject to the constraints of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, such as the powers of assassination, torture, and indefinite detention — and, of course, without any interference by the president, the Congress, and the Supreme Court.

Ironically, Ike’s successor, President John F. Kennedy, would bear the brunt of Eisenhower’s warning. That’s because Kennedy, even though he came into office as pretty much a standard Cold Warrior, ultimately achieved a breakthrough that enabled him to see that Ike was right — that this new governmental structure posed a grave and perilous threat not only to America but also to the entire world.

Kennedy decided to take it on. In his famous Peace Speech at American University in June 1963 — just five months before his assassination — he effectively declared war on the national-security establishment. He announced an end to the Cold War and declared that America would henceforth move in a direction of peaceful coexistence with the communist world.

That, of course, would have made the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA irrelevant, given that their reason for existence was their Cold War racket. Without the Cold War racket, Americans almost certainly would have dismantled this new governmental structure and restored their limited-government republic to our land.

The national-security establishment was not about to let that happen, not only because it was convinced that there could never be peaceful coexistence with the Reds but also because it was convinced that America could not survive without a national-security state. By publicly declaring that he was going to move America in a totally different direction, Kennedy had made himself a grave threat to “national security.”

It was a war to the finish — one between the national-security branch and the executive branch of the federal government. There would be no surrender by either side. Even though many Americans are still loathe to accept it, the war was ended with the national-security establishment’s assassination of Kennedy on the streets of Dallas on November 22, 1963.

If Kennedy had won the war, things would have been completely different for the American people. No more Cold War and no Vietnam War, no war on terrorism, and no wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Iran, and so many others. No more Pentagon, CIA, NSA, vast and permanent military establishment, and ever-growing army of voracious “defense” contractors. No more omnipotent government — and no more state-sponsored assassinations, torture, indefinite detention, coups, sanctions, embargoes, and foreign interventions.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, no president since Kennedy has dared to take on the national-security establishment. Instead, they have all deferred to it and, even worse, been absorbed by it. The Pentagon, the vast military-industrial complex, the CIA, and the NSA have proven to be too powerful.

Does that mean Americans are forever saddled with this deadly, destructive, and dangerous governmental structure? Of course not. If it came into existence, it can go out of existence. But getting rid of this oppressive and tyrannical governmental structure and restoring our founding system of a limited-government republic will require an enlightened citizenry, one that understands the nature of genuine liberty and is passionately committed to achieving it.

Resources:

JFK’s War with the National-Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated by Douglas Horne.

The Kennedy Autopsy by Jacob Hornberger.

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters by James W. Douglass.