What, Exactly, Is the Military Industrial Complex?
Angry Planet
Matthew Gault
4.3 • 882 Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2023
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When President Dwight David Eisenhower left the stage as president of the United States in 1961, he warned of the military-industrial complex he was leaving behind. Sounds ominous, right? And that complex has had 60 years to harden in place since Eisenhower’s farewell address.
But what is the military-industrial complex? Is it a war-mongering machine out to kill us all at a profit? Is it a bunch of old boys networking to sell $700 hammers to the Pentagon through no-bid deals? Was Eisenhower overstating a problem that only he could see?
We spoke with Emma Salisbury, who just finished a Ph.D. thesis on the subject. As with virtually everything on Angry Planet, the truth was more complicated than you might think.
Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.
https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe
Angry Planet has a Substack! Join to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.
https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Love this podcast. |
| 0:02.0 | Support this show through the A-Cast supporter feature. |
| 0:05.0 | It's up to you how much you give, |
| 0:07.0 | and there's no regular commitment. |
| 0:09.0 | Just click the link in the show description to support now. |
| 0:17.0 | So, yeah, actually I was in London a few years ago. Oh my God, I don't like to think about how many years ago it was. |
| 0:20.0 | It's not the last time I was in London, but it was the last time I was there with my child who was four years old and it was after September 11th. |
| 0:30.0 | That gives you an idea of how long ago it was. |
| 0:33.0 | And I went because I said, you know what, first of all, I'm not going to be scared. |
| 0:39.0 | And second of all, boy, the fares are going to be cheap. |
| 0:48.0 | It did and everybody at that moment loved Americans. It was a very brief moment. So it was right around now and the weather was so |
| 0:56.4 | awful. The sheeting rain as you said, the cold. It was impressive. Yeah and London just gets very gray when the weather's great. |
| 1:07.0 | It's like the dominant color is just gray. |
| 1:11.0 | Well, Emma Salisbury, thank you so much for coming on Angry Planet and do you |
| 1:20.1 | mind doing a brief introduction for yourself? |
| 1:25.0 | Sure, yeah, so my name is Emmersbury. I've just finished up my PhD on the military industrial complex |
| 1:30.0 | with a focus on the United States. |
| 1:32.0 | I'm a staffer at the UK Parliament where I've worked for about 15 years. |
| 1:37.0 | And I also am a fellow at the Council on Geo Strategy, which is a think tank based in London. |
| 1:44.0 | Well, I got to say this is a, to me this is an exciting opportunity because, you know, the military |
| 1:50.1 | industrial complex makes me think of Eisenhower and one of his last speeches as he walked |
| 1:56.3 | off the stage as president and that was a million years ago in 1960. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -426 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Matthew Gault, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Matthew Gault and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.