Dwight Eisenhower on Welfare & Poverty

1953: Every warship launched is theft from the hungry

Are we being served or are we being robbed? Are we being protected or are we being turned into a militaristic nation whose citizens are being led to believe that brute force rather than adherence to our values is the fulcrum of security?

In 1953, alert to the dangers of a permanent armaments industry, President Eisenhower said, "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who are hungry and not fed, those who are cold and not clothed."

In truth, our military budget is more an expression of the financial appetites of our military-industrial complex than it is a truly wise response to admittedly very real threats.

1/3 of mankind struggles for freedom from grinding poverty

We look upon this shaken earth, and we declare our firm and fixed purpose--the building of a peace with justice in a world where moral law prevails. [2nd Inaugural Address, January 21, 1957]