Godspeed

An old timey way of saying "good luck," or "God bless," or both of those combined.

West Point

Short for the United States Military Academy at West Point. It's basically a college for men and women who want to serve as officers in the Army. These folks graduate with zero student loans, btw. If you can get in, it's free.

"four major wars"

Three of the four wars Ike references are pretty obvious to the average history nerd: World War I, World War II (The Führer Strikes Back), and the Korean War. The U.S. was deeply involved in all three of those conflicts. But then what was the fourth war "among great nations" in the early 20th century that didn't involve the U.S.?

One possibility is the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. Japan and Russia were great powers, even at that time. But the most likely candidate is the Chinese Civil War. Millions of Chinese soldiers and civilians died during that unspeakably brutal conflict, which ended with Mao Zedong's rise to power as Chairman of the Communist Party of China. At different times, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States were all involved in one way or another.

"the conflict now engulfing the world"

Ike's referencing the Cold War, the decades-long period of proxy wars and covert operations between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. that ended in 1991 with the collapse of the latter. During this time, both nations vied for territorial dominance all around the world, overthrowing governments, assassinating officials, and backing rebel armies.

It seemed to be a conflict between economic and social ideologies, between "communism" and "capitalism," but through another lens it looks like a continuation of whatever it is the two World Wars were really all about in the first place.

"a hostile ideology"

Communism.

Incidentally, citizens of both the Soviet Union and the United States, even though they'd been allies in the war against Germany, were scared out of their gourds. "The Americans/ Russians are Coming" was basically what a lot of people were saying, in their respective languages. And with what had just happened (WWII), it's understandable that the only two superpowers left standing would be freaked out by each other. Especially the Soviet Union, what with its 18 to 31 million WWII dead.

Since the end of the war, and the recognition that the Soviets were looking to expand their influence, U.S. foreign policy was obsessed with containing the spread of communism. The nation suffered through terrible Red Scare times when anti-communist pols saw a commie under every bed and in every agency of government. Not that there weren't communists in the U.S., but lives and careers were recklessly ruined in the search to ferret them out.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

A strategic doctrine that says if two superpowers have massive nuclear arsenals, neither one will risk making a first strike. Because of the scale and number of nuclear weapon delivery systems on both sides, it's impossible for either superpower to stop a retaliatory nuclear attack. It also says that because a regular old war between such powers could eventually lead to the use of nuclear weapons, even "conventional" first strikes were too much to risk.

The only winning move is not to play.

Military-Industrial (-Congressional) Complex

Conspiracy theorists on the internet love this phrase, and if you venture out there, you're bound to find lots of definitions.

But consider this one first: the MIC is what naturally evolves when you fight an existential war of biblical proportions, win by straight-up out-producing your enemies through the creation of an unprecedentedly vast supply chain of munitions, vehicles, and weaponry that dwarfed any national economy that had come before (try 300,000 planes, 86,000 tanks, and 2 million trucks on for size), end the war with your national infrastructure completely intact, and then continue to be at war in relatively limited engagements around the globe under the shadow of nuclear annihilation.

Hold on, we've got to catch our breath for a sec…

Okay, what were we saying? There's a war. The country needs massive amounts of weaponry so they hire private companies to make them. People make deals. Companies and their executives make loads of money. America's military leaders get the hardware they're convinced they need. Even when the war's over, businesses don't want to give up profits.

Ike knew how the game was played, but he was worried that it could get out of hand. After WWII, the nation was stuck with giant arms-manufacturing corporations that lobbied Congress to keep funding their projects even in peacetime. Because making weapons gives lots of people jobs, these companies have a lot of power.

Every time the Pentagon decides not to make a new submarine or fighter jet—whether the military really needs it or not—tons of people are laid off from General Dynamics or Lockheed-Martin or some other major defense manufacturer. Certain states are hugely dependent on these businesses for their economic health. It makes those local governments, in addition to the federal government, really vulnerable to the lobbying power of the corporations who are giving their citizens good jobs.

The military-industrial complex is pretty…complex.

The Technological Revolution

Ike was discussing the boom in industrial and technological production during and after WWII. Everybody knows the war created huge growth in heavy manufacturing, but it also kick-started investment in specialized sciences and engineering.

Eisenhower couldn't even imagine the scope of that revolution in the years to come. Think about it. Computers were a very new thing in Ike's day. Sure, they were a thing the president had to know about, but they wouldn't be made commercially available to the average citizen until decades later.

In Ike's time, simple network television was the newfangled gizmo in living rooms across America, and that was blowing everybody's minds. In our time, there are a couple dozen channels entirely devoted to cakes, and no one so much as raises an eyebrow.

Scientific-Technological Elite

It's not clear if Ike had anyone in particular in mind when he wrote this phrase, but he seemed to be referring to federally-funded research that might shut out the little guy. Like the guy who might start a company in his girlfriend's sister's garage. You have to wonder what he would have thought of the modern-day private tech billionaires who hold a lot of money, power, and influence. They're probably a good slice of the scientific-technological elite pie despite being independent from government involvement except maybe when they're handing over your personal information.

It's true, though, that the federal government controls a lot of the money for basic scientific research though grants from agencies like NSF and NIH. There's some concern that these agencies might favor scientists with proven track records or studies with predictable results, and that up-and-coming young scientists with cutting-edge ideas might be shut out in allocating grant money. Fortunately, they're trying to do something about it.

And check out our "Main Idea" section for some of the problems when special interests like Big Pharma or food industry giants fund research.