Malcom Moos and Ike’s Farewell Address

Fifty years ago this month, President Dwight Eisenhower gave his farewell speech to the American people. Eisenhower's farewell address is considered one of the most important speeches by an American President in the 20th century. Eisenhower talked about how, for the first time in our history, it was necessary to have a large and prepared military establishment; and, as a result of that, we should guard against "the acquisition of unwarranted influence... by the military-industrial complex". Eisenhower's chief speech writer at the time was a Minnesotan - Malcom Moos, a journalist, political scientist, and future president of the University of MN. After leaving the White House in 1961, Moos built a cabin on Ten Mile Lake north of Hackensack, and last Fall, two of Moos' children, Grant and Kathy, found 21 drafts of Ike's farewell address in the boathouse at the lake. The drafts were written by their father during the eight months before Eisenhower gave the speech. The drafts, memos and research materials contain notes from Eisenhower and his staff. The Moos sent the notes to the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas. Grant moos says he knew there were documents from his dad's years at the White House, but he didn't know they contained the drafts of the historic speech...