Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address

A five-star general and two-term president used a farewell television broadcast on January 17, 1961, three days before leaving office, to warn the country about the military-industrial complex. That is the line everyone remembers, but the roughly 15-minute address also cautions that public policy could become "the captive of a scientific-technological elite," a warning that reads differently now. CBS, NBC and ABC all carried it. The delivery is the reason to watch: no crowd and no applause, just Eisenhower reading carefully to the camera, which makes the warning sound graver than any rally speech could.