That Other Large Complex Ike Warned About “We must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/that-other-large-complex-ike-warned-about-1522162026?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=1&cx_tag=rate&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s
In his review of recent books about the life of former President Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Rhodes (Books, March 17) repeats the now well-known warning made by President Eisenhower in his Jan. 17, 1961 speech about the “military-industrial complex.” It is important also to recall another warning the president made in the same speech about the need for universities in the U.S. to maintain freedom and independence from federal control imposed by the government making federal grants for research and other programs and activities sponsored by the universities. The president said: “The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by federal employment, project allocations and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”
Em. Prof. John A. Clark University of Michigan
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