At this point, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address needs no introduction. The thirty-sixth president’s warning about the “acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex” has been cited so often that its insights verge on the cliché. Unfortunately, Eisenhower’s speech is even more relevant today than it was sixty years ago. At no other point in history has the national security state and its partners in the defense industry wielded more influence over U.S. foreign policy.

A few paragraphs into his address, Eisenhower says the following:

“We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts, America is today the strongest, the most influential and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America’s leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.”

It’s difficult to imagine a president, let alone one with a military background, calling a war a holocaust. Yet Eisenhower recognized the human cost of armed conflict in a way that few of his successors ever did. In the eighty years since its conclusion, World War II has been celebrated in a way that no other war has. Hindsight has blunted its severity and made it seem like a relatively bloodless endeavor, even though the most conservative estimates place its death toll at thirty-five million. Eisenhower’s use of the word “holocaust” foregrounds the fact that war, even when waged for righteous purposes, betrays the sanctity of human life.

At the same time, his emphasis on “the interests of world peace and human betterment” undercuts the neoconservative argument for a bloated defense budget. According to Eisenhower, a strong military should be used to chart a course towards peace and prosperity. It is not an expensive apparatus to be used at will and without reservation. ...

Once again, it’s difficult to imagine a contemporary U.S. president making a statement this forthright about the evils of war and the imperatives of nuclear disarmament. Fifteen years removed from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Eisenhower recognized the emergence of a new world order, one which seemed destined to lead to nuclear annihilation. As a result, he stresses the importance of diplomacy, framing mutual respect as the lone impediment to mutual destruction. Today’s leaders would do well to heed Eisenhower’s example and recognize that it takes courage to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip or negotiate a resolution to the war in Ukraine.

Eisenhower concludes with the following:

“We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.”

In 2025, Eisenhower’s dream feels even less attainable than it did when he left office. Nevertheless, we persist.