I don’t think many people would argue against the notion that the Second World War is one of the most influential events in human history. Specifically in the United States, however, World War ll transformed the economic and military landscape of the nation, dramatically changing our view of warfare. Beginning with the Great Depression, developments in the 1930’s and 1940’s created a dependence on warfare unlike any in the history of the United States before, and this change doesn’t seem to be going away. In fact, in recent decades, the issues of the military-industrial complex have only been exacerbated. Currently, American cities are facing an addiction to war.
The Great Depression economically ruined cities across the United States. Millions of American cities were without any jobs and had to turn to public works programs in order to eek out a meager living. Then came global war. World War ll was very different than other wars the United States had faced. Namely, we had never become engaged in a momentous war while also reeling from a financial depression. It was the confluence of these two factors which would forever change the course of our nation.
Unlike the other major players in the war--Russia, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom--the United States actually fared better after the war than its pre-war conditions. The need to develop airplanes, submarines, tanks, and automobiles reinvigorated factories and returned jobs to never-before-seen levels of employment. In cities which had never before been large-scale military producers, factories were set up and allowed workers to earn a wage. If the Great Depression was a cold, the Second World War was the perfect medicine for ending America’s decade-long sickness. But in the aftermath of the war, it would turn out that we had become addicted to the cure.
Typically in American history, the aftermath of a war resulted in the demobilization of defense manufacturing. Not this time. Too many citizens had become completely dependent on the jobs gained from the experience of World War ll. No rational politician would support a bill which would diminish military manufacturing, leading to reduced jobs and a furious constituency. Instead, the spending on defense only increased. Cities which had never enjoyed national prominence further entrenched their dependence on military manufacturing, despite the fact that the United States was no longer at war. The ideological conflict with the Soviet Union immediately succeeding World War ll launched the idea that war could spring up at any moment and we better have planes and tanks available when that happens. Thus, the Cold War created a self-propagating engine of defense spending, deeply uniting industry and military in an unbreakable bond.
Today, this relationship continues to exist. Decades of cooperation have firmly legitimized the military industry. War has always been good for business, but now we don’t even need the war. What started off as a solution to bring America out of its worst economic catastrophe has developed into a full-blown addiction. And like with any addiction, the solution, though beneficial in the long run, always involves initial hardships. Unfortunately, we live in a system of government where politicians are elected every few years and cannot afford to focus on the long term. When jobs equal re-election, the military wheel will keep on turning.
