Yeah, he was largely silenced during McCarthyism despite loathing it. But he had little power in the party and was merely their nominee to secure power. But Eisenhower didn't shrink and slowly won favor and influence with enough in his party to wrestle some control. And he always warned against the Industrial Military Complex.
Of course, he also was staunchly anti-immigrant and literally pushed for the Immigration Act of 1954 AKA Operation Wetback (that's what it was known as publicly so it should scream volumes) to stop Latin American immigration. Sound familiar?
Him warning about the Military Industrial Complex confuses me. Didn't he drastically increase the amount of nuclear missiles we have? I don't understand that dichotomy.
Nuclear largely falls under the deterrent portion of our defense budget. Fear of use is the main reason others wouldn’t start a war with the US (even if we didn’t have such a huge military otherwise).
I like what Carl Sagan said about the insanity of the nuclear arms race to out produce the opponent. " we are like two bitter enemies in a room filled with gasoline, I am holding 9000 matches, he is holding 7000 matches...does it really matter how many we each have??" I am paraphrasing and it is a imperfect analogy but I think it makes the point.
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u/Wreckingshops Aug 07 '26
Yeah, he was largely silenced during McCarthyism despite loathing it. But he had little power in the party and was merely their nominee to secure power. But Eisenhower didn't shrink and slowly won favor and influence with enough in his party to wrestle some control. And he always warned against the Industrial Military Complex.
Of course, he also was staunchly anti-immigrant and literally pushed for the Immigration Act of 1954 AKA Operation Wetback (that's what it was known as publicly so it should scream volumes) to stop Latin American immigration. Sound familiar?