For years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa. The difference did not exist.
- Charles E. Wilson, 1953
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 statehouse, every office of the federal government . . . . We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
The main point of the first quotation is that: