Farewell Address
Three days before leaving office, the general who became president warns Americans that a permanent arms industry and government-funded science could gain too much power over a free country.
📖 Read the full text on this pageEvery paragraph numbered, so you can cite itDwight D. Eisenhower had commanded the Allied forces in Europe in World War II and spent eight years as president, so a warning from him about the country’s own military power carried unusual weight. On January 17, 1961, three days before John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, he used his last broadcast from the President’s Office to name a danger he called the ‘military-industrial complex’. That phrase is why most students read the speech, but it is only one of three warnings: he also worries about science becoming the captive of government money and about a generation that spends its grandchildren’s future. Watch how often he asks for ‘balance’, and how carefully he praises the very things he warns against. This page prints the address as he spoke it, including the greeting and the closing lines about becoming a private citizen, which he wrote by hand on his reading copy and which the printed government text leaves out.
The claim
The United States needs a strong military, a permanent arms industry and large-scale research, but these new powers must be kept in balance with democratic control. Only an alert, informed citizenry can make sure that security and liberty grow together, and that the present does not spend the future.
The rhetorical situation who, to whom, when, and why
The President’s Office, the White House
Eisenhower spoke from his office, and the address went out on radio and television to the whole country.
Evening of January 17, 1961
Three days before the inauguration of John F. Kennedy, at the height of the Cold War.
What Farewell Address says
Eisenhower greets his audience and thanks the radio and television networks. In three days, after half a century of service, he will hand the presidency to his successor, and he wishes the new President Godspeed. He traces his relations with Congress, from a senator’s appointment of him to West Point to eight years of working together, and thanks it for serving the national good. He then turns to the country’s position. After a century of great wars, America is the strongest nation in the world, but its leadership depends on how it uses its power for peace and human betterment. A hostile ideology threatens those goals, and the struggle will be long, so it calls for steady sacrifice rather than bursts of emotion. Crises will tempt the country toward some spectacular and costly cure, but every proposal must be weighed for balance. Of the new threats, he names two. The first is the joining of an immense military establishment with a permanent arms industry: three and a half million people work in defense, and military spending exceeds the net income of all United States corporations. The country needs this, he says, but government must guard against the unwarranted influence of the military-industrial complex, and only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can keep it in its place. The second threat comes from the technological revolution. Research now depends on government contracts, which could dominate the nation’s scholars, while public policy could become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. He adds the element of time: the nation must not plunder the resources of tomorrow or mortgage its grandchildren’s future. The world must become a confederation of equals, and disarmament remains an imperative. He confesses disappointment that a lasting peace is not in sight, though war has been avoided. He thanks the people, asks them to be confident but humble with power, offers a prayer for all peoples, and says that on Friday he will become a private citizen.
The line of reasoning how the argument moves
- Takes leave as a fellow citizenParagraphs 1 to 8 thank the networks, wish his successor Godspeed and praise his cooperation with Congress. The warm, nonpartisan opening shows that the warnings to come are not an attack on the other party or a parting grudge.
- Defines what American power is forParagraphs 9 to 11 grant that America is the strongest nation on earth, then say its leadership depends on using power for peace. Naming a long struggle against a hostile ideology asks for patience instead of panic, which the rest of the speech needs.
- Sets the test of balanceParagraphs 12 to 14 warn against ‘spectacular and costly’ cures and insist that every proposal be weighed for balance. This gives the audience the measuring stick he will apply to the two threats he announces at the end of paragraph 14.
- Warns about the military-industrial complexParagraphs 15 to 20 first defend a mighty military, then show how new a permanent arms industry is, and only then issue the warning. Because he concedes the need first, the warning cannot be dismissed as naive or anti-military.
- Extends the warning to science and to timeParagraphs 21 to 27 apply the same test to government-funded research and to the future, warning against a ‘scientific-technological elite’ and against plundering ‘the precious resources of tomorrow’. The argument widens from one institution to the nation’s habits.
- Closes in humility and prayerParagraphs 28 to 37 turn to peace, disarmament and his own disappointment, then to thanks and a prayer for all peoples. Ending on his limits and his return to private life models the humility with power he asks of the nation.
The full text paragraphs numbered for citation
¶1Good evening, my fellow Americans.
¶2First, I should like to express my gratitude to the radio and television networks for the opportunities they have given me over the years to bring reports and messages to our nation. My special thanks go to them for the opportunity of addressing you this evening.
¶3Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor.
¶4This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.
¶5Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.
¶6Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation.
¶7My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and, finally, to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years.
¶8In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the Nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling, on my part, of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.
¶9We 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.
¶10Throughout America’s adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among peoples and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.
¶11Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology—global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle—with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.
¶12Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defenses; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research—these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.
¶13But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs—balance between the private and the public economy, balance between the cost and hoped for advantages—balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.
¶14The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of threat and stress. But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. Of these, I mention two only.
¶15A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
¶16Our military organization today bears little relation to that known of any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
¶17Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States corporations.
¶18Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
¶19In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
¶20We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
¶21Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
¶22In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
¶23Today, 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. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
¶24The 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.
¶25Yet, 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.
¶26It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system—ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
¶27Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we—you and I, and our government—must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
¶28Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
¶29Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.
¶30Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war—as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years—I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.
¶31Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But, so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.
¶32So—in this my last good night to you as your President—I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and in peace. I trust that in that service you find some things worthy; as for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.
¶33You and I—my fellow citizens—need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation’s great goals.
¶34To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America’s prayerful and continuing aspiration:
¶35We 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; those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibility; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; and 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.
¶36Now, on Friday noon, I am to become a private citizen. I am proud to do so. I look forward to it.
¶37Thank you, and good night.
Text: The address as delivered on radio and television, January 17, 1961: Public Papers of the Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960–61, with the spoken opening and close from Eisenhower’s reading copy, checked against the recording.
Paragraph by paragraph what each part does
- 1
Paragraphs 1 to 5: A message of leave-taking
Eisenhower greets his audience and thanks the radio and television networks for years of airtime. In three days, after half a century of service, he will hand the presidency to his successor, and he offers a message of farewell. Like every other citizen, he wishes the new President Godspeed.
Why it mattersThe spoken opening is plain and personal. By calling himself one citizen among many, he sets aside the authority of office before he uses it.
- 2
Paragraphs 6 to 8: The President and Congress
The people expect the President and Congress to agree on great issues. Eisenhower traces his own relations with Congress, from the senator who appointed him to West Point, through the war years, to eight years of mutual dependence. He thanks Congress for serving the national good rather than party.
Why it mattersPraising a Congress controlled by the other party for most of his presidency establishes goodwill and a nonpartisan tone for the warnings ahead.
- 3
Paragraphs 9 to 14: Strength, purpose and balance
America has come through a century of great wars as the strongest nation in the world, but its leadership depends on how it uses its power. A hostile ideology threatens peace in a struggle of indefinite length. Crises will tempt the country toward some spectacular and costly cure, but every proposal must be weighed for balance. He announces that he will mention two new threats.
Why it mattersThis section builds the frame for everything that follows. The long list of ‘balance between’ pairs gives the audience a standard, so the warnings read as applications of a principle rather than complaints.
- 4
Paragraphs 15 to 20: The military-industrial complex
A mighty military keeps the peace, but today’s military organization bears little relation to anything his peacetime predecessors knew, or even to what the fighting men of World War II or Korea knew. The country now has a permanent arms industry, three and a half million people in the defense establishment, and military spending greater than the net income of all United States corporations. Government must guard against the ‘unwarranted influence’ of this military-industrial complex, and only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can keep security and liberty together.
Why it mattersThe famous warning comes wrapped in concessions and hard numbers. The figures make the danger concrete, and the concessions protect the general from the charge of being soft on defense.
- 5
Paragraphs 21 to 26: Science, money and the elite
The technological revolution has made research central, costly and increasingly paid for by the federal government. The lone inventor has given way to task forces of scientists, and a government contract threatens to replace intellectual curiosity in the universities. Eisenhower warns both of federal money dominating the nation’s scholars and of public policy becoming the captive of a scientific-technological elite. Statesmanship must balance these forces.
Why it mattersThe second warning mirrors the first: a necessary development that could still escape democratic control. Warning in both directions, about government over science and science over government, shows the principle of balance at work.
- 6
Paragraphs 27 to 31: Time, trust and disarmament
Balance also involves time: the nation must not plunder tomorrow’s resources or mortgage its grandchildren’s assets. The shrinking world must become a confederation of equals that keeps coming to the conference table. Disarmament is a continuing imperative, and Eisenhower confesses disappointment that a lasting peace is not in sight, though war has been avoided.
Why it mattersThe argument moves from institutions to generations and nations. His admission of disappointment is rare in a presidential speech and makes his call for patience more believable.
- 7
Paragraphs 32 to 37: Last good night
Eisenhower thanks the people for his years of public service and trusts them to improve on his record. He asks Americans to be strong in faith, confident but humble with power. He offers a prayer for all the peoples of the world, then says that on Friday noon he will become a private citizen and wishes them good night.
Why it mattersThe close replaces warning with blessing and returns the speaker to the citizenry he has just asked to stand guard. The last spoken lines, added by hand, make the farewell personal.
Rhetorical choices what the writer does, and why it works
Anaphora and antithesis
Paragraph 13 repeats ‘balance between’ five times, pairing opposites such as ‘the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable’. It closes with an antithesis: ‘Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.’ The repetition drills the key word into listeners before the warnings begin.
Parallelism
In paragraph 11 the enemy ideology is ‘global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method’. Four matched phrases give a Cold War audience a firm, familiar description of the threat, which reassures them that the speaker takes it seriously.
Allusion to Scripture
Paragraph 17 says American ‘makers of plowshares’ could once ‘make swords as well’. The line reverses the prophecy in Isaiah and Micah that nations will beat their swords into plowshares. Listeners who knew the verse would hear that the country had moved away from peace, not toward it.
Concession
Before each warning Eisenhower grants the other side’s point. Paragraph 15 says ‘Our arms must be mighty’, paragraph 18 says ‘We recognize the imperative need for this development’, and paragraph 25 holds research ‘in respect, as we should’. Conceding first makes the warnings hard to dismiss as hostility to the military or to science.
Ethos from experience
Paragraph 7 recalls his appointment to West Point, and paragraph 30 speaks ‘as one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war’. Coming from a five-star general, a warning about military influence carries an authority no civilian could claim.
Metaphor of debt
Paragraph 27 warns against ‘plundering’ the ‘precious resources of tomorrow’ and says ‘We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren’. Democracy must not become ‘the insolvent phantom of tomorrow’. The language of loans and bankruptcy turns an abstract duty to the future into something every household understands.
People & audiences
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Speaker
The outgoing president and former general, who speaks as a citizen about to return to private life (paragraphs 5 and 36) and as a soldier who knows war (paragraph 30).
The American people
Audience
His ‘fellow Americans’ and ‘countrymen’. Paragraph 20 gives them the key job in the speech: only ‘an alert and knowledgeable citizenry’ can keep military power in its place.
The new President
Successor
John F. Kennedy, never named in the speech. Paragraph 3 calls him ‘my successor’, and paragraph 5 wishes him and all who will work with him Godspeed.
Congress
Partner
The body Eisenhower thanks in paragraphs 6 to 8 for cooperating ‘to serve the national good rather than mere partisanship’.
The military-industrial complex
Power to be watched
The ‘conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry’ of paragraph 18. Eisenhower treats it as necessary, not evil, but warns that its influence may grow ‘whether sought or unsought’ (paragraph 19).
The hostile ideology
Adversary
Described in paragraph 11 as ‘global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method’. The speech never names it, but his audience understood it as Soviet communism.
Big ideas in Farewell Address
Balance
The speech’s master idea. Paragraph 13 lists the balances good judgment must keep, paragraph 26 makes balancing ‘the task of statesmanship’, and paragraph 27 adds balance across time. Each warning is a case of something growing out of balance.
Security and liberty
Eisenhower wants both, and he fears the country will buy the first with the second. Paragraph 20 states the goal plainly: ‘that security and liberty may prosper together’.
The citizen as guardian
The speech gives the final check on power not to Congress or the courts but to ordinary people. Paragraph 20 says ‘We should take nothing for granted’ and puts the burden on an ‘alert and knowledgeable citizenry’.
Duty to the future
Paragraph 27 asks the present not to ‘live only for today’ at the expense of grandchildren and ‘all generations to come’. The warning applies to money, natural resources and democracy itself.
Peace through humility
Paragraphs 29 to 33 ask a powerful nation to meet ‘the weakest’ as equals, to keep coming to the conference table, and to be ‘confident but humble with power’. Strength matters to Eisenhower only as a way to keep the peace.
Key images
Plowshares and swords
In paragraph 17 the image stands for America’s old way of defense: a peaceful nation that could turn to arms when needed. A permanent arms industry ends that arrangement.
The blackboard and the computers
Paragraph 23 says ‘For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers’. The contrast stands for the change from the solitary thinker to costly, government-funded research.
The conference table
In paragraph 29 the table, ‘scarred by many past frustrations’, stands for diplomacy. It ‘cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield’.
Repeated words and ideas
Balance. The word crowds paragraph 13 and returns in paragraphs 26 and 27. Its opposite, ‘imbalance’, names every danger in the speech.
Peace. Peace appears as the nation’s first purpose in paragraph 10, as ‘permanent peace’ in paragraph 11, as the ‘lasting peace’ not yet in sight in paragraph 30, and as the ‘peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love’ in the final prayer.
Tensions and counterarguments
Security vs. liberty. The country needs its arms and its arms industry (paragraphs 15 and 18), but their combined weight could ‘endanger our liberties or democratic processes’ (paragraph 20). Eisenhower refuses to give up either value.
Counterargument. Paragraph 12 names the tempting answers to crisis, including ‘a huge increase in newer elements of our defenses’ and ‘a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research’. Paragraph 13 replies that each must be weighed for balance, not adopted as a miraculous solution.
Present vs. future. Paragraph 27 sets ‘our own ease and convenience’ against ‘the precious resources of tomorrow’ and the heritage of ‘our grandchildren’.
Key quotes
“Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.”
“American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well.”
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”
“Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
“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.”
“As we peer into society’s future, we—you and I, and our government—must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow.”
The conclusion of Farewell Address, explained
After the warnings, Eisenhower spends his last paragraphs on peace, and he is honest about how far away it is. Paragraph 30 calls disarmament ‘a continuing imperative’ and then does something presidents rarely do: he confesses that he lays down his responsibilities ‘with a definite sense of disappointment’. Speaking ‘as one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war’, he wishes he could say a lasting peace is in sight, and he cannot. Paragraph 31 offers the one comfort he can honestly give: ‘war has been avoided’. The admission strengthens the speech. A leader who claims no triumph is easier to believe when he warns about power. Paragraph 32 thanks the people ‘for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and in peace’ and hands them the unfinished work: they ‘will find ways to improve performance in the future’. Paragraph 33 asks them to be ‘confident but humble with power’, a phrase that sums up the whole address. The prayer of paragraph 35 then widens to ‘peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations’, a long series of ‘that’ clauses asking for opportunity, charity and the end of poverty, disease and ignorance. The last two paragraphs, which he wrote by hand on his reading copy, bring the speech back to one man: ‘Now, on Friday noon, I am to become a private citizen. I am proud to do so.’ The general who warned about concentrated power ends by giving his own power away, and he says he looks forward to it.
Common misreadings
MythEisenhower was attacking the military and wanted to shrink national defense.
ActuallyParagraph 15 says ‘Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action’, and paragraph 18 says ‘We recognize the imperative need for this development.’ His warning is about unwarranted influence over government, not about having a strong military.
MythThe speech is only about the military-industrial complex.
ActuallyThat warning fills paragraphs 15 to 20 of 37. Eisenhower also warns that research could be dominated by federal money and that policy could become ‘the captive of a scientific-technological elite’ (paragraphs 22 to 25), and that the present could plunder the resources of the future (paragraph 27).
MythEisenhower was describing a secret conspiracy of generals and arms makers.
ActuallyParagraph 19 warns against influence ‘whether sought or unsought’. The danger he describes is structural: a huge, permanent defense economy felt ‘in every city, every State house’ (paragraph 18) can bend policy even if no one intends it.
AP practice a rhetorical analysis prompt in the exam's style
On January 17, 1961, three days before leaving the presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former five-star general, gave a farewell address on radio and television in which he warned the nation about the growing power of its own defense establishment. Read the address carefully. Then write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Eisenhower makes to persuade Americans to guard against the dangers he describes.
What a strong response notices
- The nonpartisan, grateful opening of paragraphs 1 to 8, which builds goodwill before any warning.
- The repeated ‘balance between’ in paragraph 13, which gives the audience a standard for judging every proposal.
- The concessions of paragraphs 15, 18 and 25, which protect the warnings from the charge of being anti-military or anti-science.
- The concrete figures of paragraph 17 (three and a half million people, spending above all corporate net income) that make the new scale of defense visible.
- The ethos of paragraph 30 and the humble close of paragraphs 32 to 37, where a general who knows war hands responsibility back to the citizens he called on in paragraph 20 to be ‘an alert and knowledgeable citizenry’.
Practice prompt written by StoryBites, not taken from a College Board exam. See the AP Language free-response guide for how answers are scored.
Test yourself
1. How many days after this address will Eisenhower leave office, according to paragraph 3?
Paragraph 3 begins ‘Three days from now’, when the authority of the Presidency will pass to his successor.
2. What does paragraph 17 say the United States did NOT have until the latest world conflicts?
‘Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry.’ The country has since been ‘compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions’.
3. Who, according to paragraph 20, can keep the military and industrial machinery in its proper place?
‘Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing’ of defense with ‘our peaceful methods and goals’.
4. What is the ‘equal and opposite danger’ of paragraph 25?
After warning that federal money could dominate scholars, he warns of the reverse: policy captured by a scientific-technological elite.
5. What does Eisenhower confess in paragraph 30?
He lays down his responsibilities in disarmament ‘with a definite sense of disappointment’ and wishes he could say ‘a lasting peace is in sight’.
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
Eisenhower was a famous general who became president. Just before he left the job in 1961, he went on TV to say goodbye. He said America needed a strong army, but that the army and the companies that make weapons had become huge and very powerful together. He warned that they could end up having too much say over the government. He also warned that science paid for by the government could get too much power, and that people should not use up what their grandchildren will need. He said ordinary citizens have to pay attention and keep all of this in balance.
Compare & connect
John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address
Delivered three days later by the successor Eisenhower wishes Godspeed. Both speak to the Cold War, but Kennedy promises to ‘pay any price, bear any burden’, while Eisenhower warns about what that price does to a free society.
First Inaugural Address
Roosevelt, taking office in a crisis, says that if Congress fails to act he will ask it for power as great as he would have if the country were invaded. Eisenhower, leaving office, warns about the lasting influence of a war-ready state. Read together, they show power being claimed and power being checked.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
Another address by a war leader that refuses to boast, admits limits and turns to prayer near its close. Lincoln asks for ‘a just and lasting peace’; Eisenhower confesses that a lasting peace is not yet in sight.
Discussion and essay prompts:
💬 Discussion questions
- What did Eisenhower warn about in his farewell address
- What is the military-industrial complex Eisenhower described
- What is the scientific-technological elite in Eisenhower’s farewell address
- How does Farewell Address explore the theme of balance?
- How does Farewell Address explore the theme of security and liberty?
- What is the central conflict in Farewell Address, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Dwight D. Eisenhower develops the theme of balance in Farewell Address. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of plowshares and swords in Farewell Address. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Dwight D. Eisenhower use anaphora and antithesis to shape the reader’s experience of Farewell Address?
- Some readers assume that eisenhower was attacking the military and wanted to shrink national defense. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- What did Eisenhower warn about in his farewell address
- What is the military-industrial complex Eisenhower described
- What is the scientific-technological elite in Eisenhower’s farewell address
- Why did Eisenhower warn about the military if he was a general
- What rhetorical devices does Eisenhower use in his farewell address
- How is Eisenhower’s farewell address different from Kennedy’s inaugural
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The full text and quotations follow the address as Eisenhower delivered it on radio and television on January 17, 1961: the Public Papers of the Presidents text, corrected against the Eisenhower Library’s audio recording and his typed reading copy, with the spoken greeting and closing restored and two slips of the tongue printed in their prepared wording. As a work of the United States government, it is in the public domain.