2025-04-12
48 分钟Dwight Eisenhower left the Oval Office with high marks from the American public.
In his waning days in public life, his approval rating was around 60%.
The boy from Abilene, West Point graduate,
commander of forces in Europe and North Africa in World War II,
Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, President of Columbia University.
So the country had reason to listen as he gave his farewell address.
It's remembered for one line in particular.
We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,
whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
That complex, Eisenhower warned, would lead to the stifling of academic innovation.
Today the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop,
has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists.
in laboratories and testing fields.
In the same fashion, the free university,
historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery,
has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research.
Eisenhower argued that government contracts were becoming substitutes for intellectual curiosity.
Today, that same federal government is taking that money back.
I'm John Perlow, and this is Checks and Balance from The Economist.
Each week, we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth.