THE MILITARY IN POLITICS
PROGRESSIVE "YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE" The Military in Politics ONE OF THE most firmly fixed principles of the American constitutional system is the supremacy...
...Evidence of this "disastrous rise of misplaced power" was made available to the nation during the past month by Senator J. W. Fulbright, Arkansas Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, whose voice today is one of the sanest and most courageous in the Senate on almost all issues but race relations...
...This, then, is the heart of the scheme—to seek the destruction of our modest program of social welfare and prevent the enactment of additional social measures—all in the name of "fighting Communism" at home...
...Eisenhower dealt with many themes, but he surprised the pundits by expressing greatest concern over the "conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry...
...President Kennedy and Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara have responded affirmatively to Senator Fulbright's inquiries and conclusions, but they must act even more firmly and decisively to end military meddling in domestic politics if we hope to retain the constitutional supremacy of civilian authority over the military and cope effectively with that "potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power" against which General Eisenhower warned so urgently...
...In his farewell address to the nation, Mr...
...Eisenhower as he hammered home his point that the ascendancy of the "military-industrial complex" carries "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power...
...There is method in this madness, for after attributing all our woes to internal subversion, the forces of the far right move on to expound their doctrine that this subversion finds its outlet in a form of socialism at home that is draining our strength and endangering the security of the republic...
...When socialism, in turn, is understood, one cannot help but realize that many of the domestic programs advocated in the United States, and many of those adopted, fall clearly within the category of socialism...
...This, keep in mind, is supposed to be the military establishment "fighting Communism" at home—by corruptly associating Federal aid to education with socialism and fraudulently dragging in Federal aid to our churches...
...Studying the content of eleven of the cold war seminars, Senator Ful' bright found that "radical right-wing speakers dominate the program," that the central theme emphasizes internal subversion as our greatest danger, arid that all our difficulties, past and current, are the consequence of this "subversion," "softness," "sell-outs," and "appeasements...
...Speaking in somber terms he rarely employed, the departing President appealed to his countrymen to stand "guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence" by the military and its potent partner, the arms industry...
...Do you want Federal aid to our churches...
...Do you want Federal aid to education...
...That Senator Fulbright was not exaggerating was quickly confirmed by Senator Strom Thurmond, South Carolina Democrat, who bitterly attacked Fulbright for his exposure of military indoctrination on political issues...
...This view of the Communist menace renders foreign aid, cultural exchanges, disarmament negotiations, and other international programs as extremely wasteful, if not actually subversive...
...This cornerstone of our freedom has been eroding in recent years as the military establishment has grown ever more powerful in shaping foreign policy and dominating our domestic economy...
...Much of [the present] Administration's domestic legislative program, including continuation of the graduated income tax, expansion of social security (particularly medical care under social security), Federal aid to education, and the like, under this philosophy would be characterized as steps toward Communism...
...A painstaking investigation by Senator Fulbright confirmed what had long been suspected —that the military establishment has been engaged for half a dozen years in a systematic campaign of political indoctrination which, under the guise of "fighting Communism," challenges the loyalty of such patriots as Adlai Stevenson, equates moderate social reform with Communism, and classifies negotiation with our adversaries as "appeasement...
...The thesis of the nature of the Communist threat," Senator Fulbright reported, "is developed by equating social legislation with socialism, and the latter with Communism...
...The cold war seminars turn out to be training centers conducted by those who are far less interested in developing creative programs that would enable us to whip the Soviets in the struggle of competitive coexistence than they are with winning the cold war against the vast majority of Americans, especially those who are underprivileged and who are helped by social legislation...
...Sometimes on its own, more often in association with organizations so far to the right that they regard the income tax as Communism, the Pentagon has conducted a series of "cold war seminars" around the country which has put the military establishment in the position of taking sides on domestic political issues which are none of its official business...
...President Eisenhower, himself a lifelong professional soldier, was sufficiently alarmed over the trend to warn, in his last days in office, against its "grave implications...
...Do you want socialism...
...No American in our time could draw on so long and successful a career in military life and so elevated a role in civilian affairs as Mr...
...shouted an Air Force officer at a cold war seminar in California...
...PROGRESSIVE "YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE" The Military in Politics ONE OF THE most firmly fixed principles of the American constitutional system is the supremacy of the civilian authority over the' military...
...In a speech defending the practices of the military, Thurmond said: "If the military teaches the true nature of Communism, it must necessarily teach that Communism is fundamentally socialism...
...Senator Fulbright, who must soon stand for reelection in a state where his position on this issue is being distorted in some quarters with flagrant disregard for the truth, has performed a service 0 1 extraordinary patriotism in exposing the character and content of some of the programs of political indoctrination conducted by the military establishment...
...All too frequently the content of the seminar programs has been indistinguishable from the right-wing lunacy of the John Birch Society and kindred organizations that reject the Twentieth Century...
Vol. 25 • September 1961 • No. 9
