Humanity Hanging from a Cross of Iron: Eisenhower's Forgotten Warning on the True Cost of War

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."--Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind."

—JFK

First Atlas test launch, 1957*

The Eisenhower quote above is from a speech President Eisenhower gave on April 16 1953 six weeks after the death of Josef Stalin. It's been alternately called "The Chance for Peace" and the "Cross of Iron" speech. In this address Eisenhower called for global de-escalation and cooperative security as opposed to the Soviet Union's reliance on military force and regional dominance. 

In the middle of the speech Eisenhower notes that the prohibitive cost of armaments represents a theft from humanity, diverting resources from essential needs like healthcare, education, and infrastructure. He challenges the new Soviet leadership to prove their desire for peace through concrete actions, such as ending hostilities in Asia and supporting a unified, free Europe. Ultimately, the speech proposes a global fund for reconstruction, fueled by the savings from disarmament, to wage a "total war" against poverty and hunger rather than against other nations.

He then became quite specific on what increased military spending actually eant. The cost of modern armaments should not be understood as a line item in a budget, but as a direct sacrifice of human well-being. 

One modern heavy bomber (in 1953) cost the equivalent of a modern brick school in more than 30 cities; or two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 people; or two fine, fully equipped hospitals; or 50 miles of concrete highway.

One fighter plane cost the same as a half million bushels of wheat.

One destroyer could have built new homes for more than 8,000 people.**

This reframing was timeless because it pierced the abstract veil of national security budgets in order to force a moral reckoning. Eisenhower was not just making an economic point; he was arguing that a nation's true strength is measured in the well-being of its people, not the sophistication of its arsenal. To reiterate: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

Eisenhower’s speech was a direct and powerful appeal to choose a different future. The world faced a choice between the "dread road" of fear and arms and the "highway of peace" built upon a total war against poverty and need. His proposal was to dedicate the world's strength, resources, and imagination "to serving the needs, rather than the fears, of the world." The monuments to this new kind of war, he said, would be "roads and schools, hospitals and homes, food and health." 

It was as if the backbone of Eisenhower's speech was taken from Robert Frost's famous poem The Road Not Taken. There are two roads ahead, he said. We'd like you, leaders in the Kremlin, to join us as we stroll down the path of peace. It's the Kremlin's responsibility to choose correctly. 

How did this speech ultimately play out?  

As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. The U.S. stockpile grew rapidly in the 1950s due to expanded fissile material production and thermonuclear weapon development starting in 1954. Production rates accelerated in the late 1950s, exceeding 7,000 warheads per year in 1959–1960. The Soviet Union's nuclear weapons collection grew much slower so that by the end of the decade the U.S. had nearly 10 times as many bombs and missiles as the Soviets.

While making a public appeal for peace, the U.S. was simultaneously taking clandestine measures to overthrow foreign leaders we didn't like. In 1953 we overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran in Operation Ajax. The following year we took down the democratically elected President Arbeniz of Guatemala. 

In 1956 and 57 the CIA, with British and Turkish intelligence, attempted military takeovers, assassinations, staged incidents, propaganda, and bribes to topple pro-Nasser governments under President Shukri al-Quwatly and successors in Syria. All plots were uncovered and failed, increasing Syrian ties to the USSR.

From 1957-59 the CIA gave support for the Permesta Rebellion in Indonesia. By providing arms, funding, and aerial bombings through front organizations like Civil Air Transport, the U.S. sought to destabilize President Sukarno's government. The effort failed, with the rebellion defeated by 1961 after a U.S. pilot was captured in 1958, exposing involvement.

 

In Iraq (1959) the CIA planned with Egyptian collaboration to support nationalist elements, including Ba'athists, in an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim on September 7, 1959. Tactics included providing weapons and training to prevent a perceived communist takeover. The attempt failed, and Qasim remained in power until 1963.

According to David Halberstam, in his book The Fifties, "Administration officials had few moral qualms either about their role or about deceiving the American press and people. They saw themselves in an apocalyptic struggle with Communism in which normal rules of fair play did not apply. "

Eisenhower’s speech was a direct and powerful appeal to choose a different future. How did our nation's actions align with his appeal for a peaceful future? 

I think it interesting President Eisenhower's last speech was a warning to Americans.

Here is the speech in which President Eisenhower first made reference to what he called the "military-industrial complex." President Eisenhower gave this speech just days before stepping down,  yielding power to the newly elected JFK.

More than seventy years later, as nations continue to build arsenals of breathtaking expense and destructive power, Eisenhower's words echo with renewed urgency. 

* * * * *

This post was conceived after I saw Eisenhower's speech referenced in relation to a recent article noting our current trillion dollar defense budget, the highest in U.S. history. 

Related Links 

Eisenhower's "The Chance for Peace" Speech

Dylan's Masters Of War Didn't Just Apply to the Cold War

*The SM-65 Atlas was an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile. With the proliferation of intercontinental missiles there was simultaneously a surge in family fallout shelters and air raid drills.

**Based on the way planes and ships are built today (e.g. the F-35 fighter jet), these numbers are way off.

A Writing Lesson from General Eisenhower's D-Day Directive

On this day 81 years ago, the Allied invasion of Normandy began—turning the tide of World War II. In his stirring address to the troops, General Dwight D. Eisenhower declared, “The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!” Let’s take a moment to remember their bravery and what they fought for.

Planning for this Normandy beachhead began years earlier. The Allied leader knew that to be won, an invasion force must be transported to the Continent. In February 1944 that day would be coming soon and Gen. Eisenhower began drafting his official directive to the troops being amassed for this mission, ultimately numbering 2,876,000 soldiers by May.  

For me, one takeaway from this document is that the more important something is, the more time you must dedicate to getting every word right. Note the tone, the emphasis on the importance of the mission and what the Allied Expeditionary Forces were up against. It's aim was to inspire courage and heroic sacrifice. It was a remarkable moment in history with something real at stake, a day worth remembering.

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS
ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

[Endorsement]

* * * 

For more about this directive and moment in history, visit this link to the National Archives.

Thoughts on War, from Ancient and Modern Perspectives

After reading the following statement in a Substack post this morning I felt prompted to assemble some thoughts about war. I considered writing comments about each but concluded that their effect together did not require additional embellishments.

"Dopamine-inducing propaganda is an omnipresent feature of modern media, and emotions stirred by military conflict only increase the difficulty of separating reality from the innumerable synthetic varieties. It is not uncommon to find wildly different descriptions of the same event from seemingly credible sources."
--Doomberg, Mapping the War

“We experienced first-hand the horror of this war, witnessing the appalling injuries and death". --Senior medical officer Dr. Sandy Inglis, describing the impacts of the recent airstrikes in Rafah, and scenes from the Red Cross Field Hospital as staff received patients

"Wars invariably serve as classrooms and laboratories where men and techniques and states of mind are prepared for the next war."
--Wendell Berry 

"War is a highly planned and cooperative form of theft."
--Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man

"I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people."
--Edmund Burke

They sent forth men to battle,
But no such men return;
And home, to claim their welcome,
Come ashes in an urn.

--Aeschylus, Agamemnon

"War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against each other."
--Thomas Carlyle, as quoted by Emma Goldman 

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

    That mark our place; and in the sky

    The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

     --John McCrae

Route 66: A Journey Through Time

Route 66, also known as the "Mother Road," was a highway that ran from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California. It was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System, and it was established in 1926. Route 66 quickly became a popular route for people traveling across the country, and it played an important role in the development of the American West.

Route 66 passed through eight states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. It ran through many small towns and rural areas, connecting these communities to the rest of the country. Route 66 also passed through some of the most scenic parts of the United States, including the Grand Canyon and the Mojave Desert.

This highway was especially popular during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. During this time, many people from the Midwest migrated to California in search of a better life. Route 66 was the main route that people took on this journey, and it became known as the "Highway of Hope." (Read John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.)

Route 66 was also popular with tourists. The highway offered travelers a chance to see the American West and to experience its unique culture. Route 66 was also known for its many roadside attractions, such as motels, diners, and gas stations.

The animated film Cars showed audiences what happened to the historic highway once the new Interstate Highway System was being installed under President Eisenhower in the 1950s and it began to decline in importance. The new superhighways were faster and more direct than Route 66, and became the preferred route for travelers. Though Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985 it remained a popular tourist destination today.

In 2009 Susie and I drove a portion of it from Texas to the Grand Canyon. There were memorable sites along the way, but the memories were clouded by the poverty we saw as well. People can move on, places cannot. Neither is easy.

Photos courtesy Gary Firstenberg.

Related Link Southwest Sorrows: Making Memories on Old Route 66 Gary Firstenberg: Turning Negatives Into Positives

Throwback Thursday: The Great American Pastime

"Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer." ~Ted Williams

Photo by Nathan Gonthier on Unsplash

It's a long season. Beginning in the spring, when the birds fly north, you hear the first crack of the bat and hearts going pitter-patter awaiting the season opener... followed by the long weary road as the season wears on. Every day is game day with only the All Star break to interfere. By the time the season nears its end the birds are flying south, and up here in the Northland we wake to find frost on our car windows each morning.

September, just around the corner, is the month when pennant hopes come alive. We see which teams have enough pitchers left who can bring their teams down the stretch, because by this time there are a lot of tired arms out there.

Baseball is a game that has inspired many a poet, journalist, philosopher, artist and story teller. It's a sport that, to some extent, defines the American spirit. Despite numerous strikes that broke many a fan's heart, we still get that "feeling" in September as the days crawl toward the playoffs... At least, I still get that feeling.

I admit that I'm not the fan I used to be, but I still enjoy following the game. There's a ball field in Hermantown that I drive past on the way to the mall, and when I see kids out there playing I occasionally stop and watch a few pitches, watch the way a kid fields a grounder, how they carry themselves. Sometimes I wish I had my camera or think I should do a painting of the sprawling lush green grass, the lime white foul lines, the beige infield.

When I was seven I lied about my age to play in the Little League. This was back when kids went off to play baseball after school and through the evening and parents didn't wonder where we were all hours of the day. The team I played on was called the Mudcats, which came from a pitcher named Mudcat Grant, who was an ace for the Cleveland Indians. This was the spring of '60. Three years later Grant was the only Indian who made the 1963 All Star team which I saw live in old Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

It's hard to say whether life is more like baseball, or that baseball is like life. For sure, baseball has turned more than a few fans into amateur philosophers. Here are some quotes from one of many sources on the internet that collect such pearls, and a few new ones since this was posted in 2012.

"The baseball mania has run its course. It has no future as a professional endeavor." --Cincinnati Gazette, 1879

"When I was a small boy in Kansas, a friend of mine and I went fishing and as we sat there in the warmth of the summer afternoon on a river bank, we talked about what we wanted to do when we grew up. I told him that I wanted to be a real major league baseball player, a genuine professional like Honus Wagner. My friend said that he'd like to be president of the United States. Neither of us got our wish."--Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Baseball is very big with my people. It figures. It's the only time we can get to shake a bat at a white man without starting a riot."--Dick Gregory, 1962

"Good pitching always stops good hitting, and vice versa."--Bob Veale

"Baseball exemplifies a tension in the American mind, the constant pull between our atomistic individualism and our yearning for community."--George Will

“If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she will choose to save the infant’s life without even considering if there is a man on base “--Dave Barry

”Slump ? I ain’t in no slump. I just ain’t hittin’.”--Yogi Berra

”Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many players on the field?“--Jim Bouton

"All I want out of life is that when I walk down the street folks will say, ‘There goes the greatest hitter that ever lived.’”--Ted Williams

"Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things."--Robert Frost

"If it weren't for baseball, many kids wouldn't know what a millionaire looked like."--Phyllis Diller

"Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional baseball player. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in."--Casey Stengel

"The seductiveness of baseball is that almost everyone with an abiding interest in it knows exactly how it should be played. And secretly believes that he could do it, if only God had seen fit to make him just a little bit less clumsy."--George V Higgins 

Well, y'all have a great weekend... whoever you're rootin' for.

Our Military Industrial Complex

"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." ~ John F. Kennedy, Letter to Navy friend

This is a very interesting observation by former president John Kennedy, especially on the heels of President Eisenhower’s parting remarks expressing concern about the growing power of the military-industrial complex. It’s interesting because today we have a minority with a shot at the White House, as well as a woman within striking distance. On the other hand, where is the nearest conscientious objector?

Here is what I find especially interesting regarding the Sixties protestors who took a stand against the military-industrial complex. The very phrase itself originated in the mouth of a U.S. president.

A conscientious objector is someone who, for matters of conscience, must decline from military service. Usually it is for religious reasons, but some there are who simply refuse to do harm to others of the human family. In the course of history many conscientious objectors have been imprisoned, or even killed, for this adherence to conscience. It's a stain on our history.

The stance of conscientious objector is a challenging one. Few there are who would disagree that a brutal tyrant like Adolph Hitler would require being stopped, which presupposes a commitment to maintaining armaments of greater force. Conscientious objectors can be opposed to carrying weapons and doing damage to others, but may be fully integrated into an army as stretcher bearers or nurses, though others would oppose even this assistance to a war effort.

The attitude of a conscientious objector may also include a call for reflection on whether a war is just or unjust. Patriotism is challenged by this stance. Many patriots, standing beneath the banner “My country right or wrong,” demand a fully unified affirmation from the masses. To be perceived as unpatriotic is a form of anarchy or sin in their eyes. But a conscientious objector can love his or her country very much while calling the nation into account to higher laws.

Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy felt strongly that war was incompatible with Christian faith altogether, citing much historical literature to support his beliefs. Here is but one typical example of Tolstoy’s view. “The most ardent and sincere fathers of the Church declared the teaching of Christ to be incompatible with one of the fundamental conditions of the existence of the State: armed force. In other words, a Christian must not be a soldier prepared to kill every one whom he is ordered to.”
Dr. Francis Schaeffer, however, cites Charles Finney to lay out a case for Christians taking up arms against tyrants. In this manner he justifies the American Revolution in his book “A Christian Manifesto” which also provided the wind power that swept many Christians into political activism in the 1980’s. C. S. Lewis stated in one of his essays that two Christians serving their countries as soldiers might shoot one another simultaneously and meet immediately once more on the other side of the veil.

In other words, individuals can with good conscience choose a variety of paths, each becoming accountable for his or her individual choices and actions. If I may weigh in here, I would suggest that the important thing is that we have the fredom to have this dialogue and not have it taken from us.

War is a terrible thing, and even winning has a terrible cost.

As we look back on the turbulence of the sixties, it helps to keep in mind the context for what we saw and experienced. The warning from Ike (below) took root in the soil of many hearts and was transformed through song into a movement. Masters of War by Dylan, Pete Seeger's troubadorian protest stance, and the beautifully tragic appeal reflected in Joan Baez were all woven together into an anthem that found hearers whose consciences had not yet been seared.



Joan Baez sings "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"