The Military-Industrial Complex

Conflicts around the world intensified because of fear and economic pressure. Countries that felt threatened, including the United States and the Soviet Union, built strong militaries to defend themselves. These military forces required large factories to build planes, tanks, and other goods. Since many countries lacked facilities to make their own weapons, the international weapons trade expanded greatly.

As the defense industries expanded, so did the number of people who relied on them for jobs. Cutting back on defense spending, then, became very difficult. In 1961, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, a highly decorated general in World War II, called this combination of government defense departments and private businesses supplying their demands the military- industrial complex. He warned that it could grow powerful enough to threaten the country’s democracy.