Ideally, Warren’s report would precipitate a much larger congressional investigation of the military-industrial complex modeled after the 1934 Nye Committee hearings.

At the end of April, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, released an investigative report: “Pentagon Alchemy: How Defense Officials Pass Through the Revolving Door and Peddle Brass for Gold.”

It reveals, not surprisingly, that nearly 700 former high-ranking and other government officials now work at the top 20 defense contractors, and highlights the need to close the revolving door for ex-government and military officials hired to executive board and lobbyist positions at large defense contractors.

“When government officials cash in on their public service by lobbying, advising, or serving as board members and executives for the companies they used to regulate, it undermines public officials’ integrity and casts doubt on the fairness of government contracting,” Warren wrote. “This problem is especially concerning and pronounced in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the United States’ defense industry.”

To combat the situation, Senator Warren has introduced the Department of Defense Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, which would “limit the influence of contractors on the military, constrain foreign influence on retired senior military officers, and assert greater transparency over contractors and their interaction with Department of Defense (DoD).”

Warren’s bill would certainly be a step in the right direction if it passes, though it is not enough.

What is needed, more broadly, is a) a fundamental shift in the election campaign financing structure; b) an outright bar of Pentagon officials from working in private military industry; c) much stricter regulations on lobbying; and, ultimately, d) the nationalization of the arms industry, which would take the profit out of war once and for all.

The Revolving Door

The major findings of “Pentagon Alchemy” are that:

• Top defense contractors hire hundreds of former government officials, most as lobbyists: As of 2021, there have been 672 instances in which former government officials, military officers, members of Congress and senior legislative staff were found to be working for the top 20 defense contractors. In 91% of these cases, the individuals who went through the revolving door became registered lobbyists for big defense contractors.
• Defense industry consolidation increases the risks from big corporations’ abuse of the revolving door: The DoD is the largest federal contracting agency—of the total $692.3 billion in contracts awarded by the federal government in FY 2021, 61% were awarded by DoD, with almost 40% going exclusively to 10 defense contractors.
• Big defense contractors hired the most revolving-door lobbyists and stocked their boards with former government officials: Boeing hired the most former government officials, 85, which includes six as high-ranking executives, two as board members and 77 as registered lobbyists. Raytheon hired 64, three as board members, one as a corporate executive and 60 as registered lobbyists. General Electric hired 60 revolving-door lobbyists. These examples shed light on the frequency with which defense contractors use the revolving door to hire former high-ranking government and military officials into senior executive or board positions. 

This Year’s Rank	Last Year’s Rank	Company	Leadership	Country	2021 Defense Revenue (in millions)	2020 Defense Revenue (in millions)	% Defense Revenue Change	2021 Total Revenue (in millions)	Revenue From Defense
1	1	Lockheed Martin	James D. Taiclet, Chairman, President and CEO	U.S.	$64,458.00	$62,562.00	3%	$67,044.00	96%
2	2	Raytheon Technologies	Gregory J. Hayes, Chairman and CEO	U.S.	$41,852.20	$42,000.00	0%	$64,388.00	65%
3	3	Boeing	David Calhoun, President and CEO	U.S.	$35,093.00	$32,400.00	8%	$62,286.00	56%
4	4	Northrop Grumman	Kathy J. Warden, Chair, CEO and President	U.S.	$31,429.00	$31,400.00	0%	$35,667.00	88%
5	5	General Dynamics	Phebe Novakovic, Chairman and CEO	U.S.	$30,800.00	$29,800.00	3%	$38,500.00	80%
6	6	Aviation Industry Corporation of China	Tan Ruisong, Chairman of the Board, and Hao Zhaoping, Director and General Manager *	China	$30,155.22	$25,468.59	18%	$80,424.24	37%
7	7	BAE Systems	Charles Woodburn, Group CEO	UK	$25,775.20	$23,502.38	10%	$26,849.16	96%
8	10	China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited	Lei Fanpei, Chairman, and Yang Jincheng, Director and General Manager	China	$18,517.72	$16,017.53	16%	$92,573.10	20%
9	8	China North Industries Group Corporation Limited	Liu Shiquan, Chairman, and Liu Dashan, President *	China	$17,711.93	$15,249.27	16%	$81,648.42	22%
10	9	L3Harris Technologies	Christopher E. Kubasik, Vice Chair and CEO *	U.S.	$14,924.00	$14,936.00	0%	$17,814.00	84%
11	15	China Electronics Technology Group	Xiong Qunli, Chairman, and Wu Manqing, President	China	$14,659.22	$10,465.75	40%	$57,629.62	25%
12	13	Leonardo	Alessandro Profumo, CEO	Italy	$13,878.35	$11,173.33	24%	$16,720.97	83%
13	14	China South Industries Group Corporation	Xu Xianping, Chairman of the Group and Secretary of the Party Committee, and Chen Guoying, Director and General Manager *	China	$13,744.95	$10,697.68	28%	$44,349.55	31%
14	11	China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation	Yuan Jie, Chairman, and Wei Yiyin, Deputy General Manager *	China	$13,125.11	$12,060.26	9%	$41,033.41	32%
15	12	Airbus	Guillaume Faury, CEO	Netherlands/France	$10,853.55	$12,004.28	-10%	$61,689.56	18%
16	16	Thales	Patrice Caine, Chairman and CEO	France	$10,212.39	$9,228.36	11%	$19,154.29	53%
17	17	HII	Christopher Kastner, President and CEO *	U.S.	$9,475.00	$8,654.37	9%	$9,524.00	99%
18	18	China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation	Wu Yansheng, Chairman, and Zhang Zhongyang, Director and General Manager *	China	$9,344.09	$8,305.92	12%	$43,636.74	21%
19	19	Leidos	Roger Krone, Chairman and CEO	U.S.	$8,032.00	$7,341.00	9%	$13,737.00	58%
20	34	Dassault Aviation	Eric Trappier, Chairman and CEO	France	$6,151.33	$3,724.44	65%	$8,517.23	72%
21	23	Amentum	John Heller, CEO *	U.S.	$5,900.00	$5,000.00	18%	$9,200.00	64%
22	22	Booz Allen Hamilton	Horacio D. Rozanski, President and CEO	U.S.	$5,528.51	$5,470.21	1%	$8,363.70	66%
23	21	Honeywell	Darius Adamczyk, Chairman and CEO	U.S.	$5,151.00	$5,826.00	-12%	$34,392.00	15%
24	32	Mitsubishi Group	Katsuya Nakanishi, President and CEO *	Japan	$5,004.36	$3,788.12	32%	$8,350.31	60%
25	96	Peraton	Stu Shea, Chairman, President and CEO	U.S.	$5,000.00	$651.20	668%	$7,200.00	69%
26	26	Safran	Olivier Andries, CEO	France	$4,981.39	$4,707.20	6%	$18,048.24	28%
27	25	Rolls-Royce	Warren East, Chief Executive	UK	$4,972.07	$4,863.94	2%	$15,056.49	33%
28	33	Naval Group	Pierre Eric Pommellet, Chairman and CEO	France	$4,850.09	$3,766.68	29%	$4,850.09	100%
29	29	Rheinmetall AG	Armin Papperger, CEO	Germany	$4,788.57	$4,249.50	13%	$6,693.12	72%
30	28	Hanwha	Seung Youn Kim, Chairman	South Korea	$4,786.92	$4,293.68	11%	$7,167.68	67%
31	30	Elbit Systems	Bezhalel Machlis, President and CEO	Israel	$4,770.76	$4,222.70	13%	$5,278.52	90%
32	45	KBR	Stuart Bradie, President and CEO	U.S.	$4,723.78	$2,739.74	72%	$7,338.68	64%
33	31	CACI International	John Mengucci, President and CEO	U.S.	$4,185.29	$3,999.26	5%	$6,044.14	69%
34	27	General Electric	H. Lawrence Culp Jr., Chairman and CEO	U.S.	$4,136.00	$4,572.00	-10%	$74,196.00	6%
35	36	Saab AB	Micael Johansson, President and CEO	Sweden	$4,107.09	$3,385.41	21%	$4,563.52	90%
36	42	Tactical Missiles Corporation JSC	Boris Obnosov, Director General	Russia	$3,960.79	$2,919.63	36%	$4,040.85	98%
37	37	Israel Aerospace Industries	Boaz Levy, President and CEO	Israel	$3,867.00	$3,325.00	16%	$4,477.00	86%
38	38	SAIC	Nazzic Keene, CEO	U.S.	$3,578.00	$3,292.00	9%	$7,394.00	48%
39	35	Textron Inc.	Scott C. Donnelly, Chairman, President and CEO	U.S.	$3,219.32	$3,449.00	-7%	$12,382.00	26%
40	43	KNDS	Frank Haun, CEO	Netherlands	$3,173.85	$2,898.06	10%	$3,173.85	100%
41	44	Rafael Advanced Defense Systems	Yoav Har-Even, President and CEO	Israel	$3,059.26	$2,787.58	0%	$3,059.26	100%
42	41	Hindustan Aeronautics Limited	Rajagopalan Madhavan, Chairman and Managing Director	India	$3,040.56	$3,000.00	1%	$3,268.65	93%
43	NEW	Babcock International	David Lockwood, CEO	UK	$3,002.06	$2,935.52	2%	$5,360.82	56%
44	40	Bechtel	Brendan Bechtel, Chairman and CEO	U.S.	$3,000.00	$3,100.00	-3%	$17,500.00	17%
45	46	Jacobs	Steve Demetriou, Chair of the Board and CEO	U.S.	$2,749.00	$2,498.00	10%	$14,093.00	20%
46	47	Oshkosh Corporation	John Pfeifer, President and CEO	U.S.	$2,525.60	$2,262.20	12%	$7,737.30	33%
47	50	TransDigm	Kevin Stein, President, CEO and Director	U.S.	$2,389.00	$2,180.00	10%	$4,798.00	50%
48	49	Fincantieri S.p.A.	Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO *	Italy	$2,338.69	$2,211.96	6%	$8,175.35	29%
49	48	Aselsan A.S.	Haluk Gorgun, Chairman, President and CEO	Turkey	$2,250.39	$2,218.33	1%	$2,333.68	96%
50	55	ST Engineering	Vincent Chong, Group President and CEO	Singapore	$2,157.72	$1,885.29	14%	$5,723.92	38%
51	52	ManTech	Kevin M. Phillips, Chairman of the Board, CEO and President	U.S.	$1,991.00	$1,964.00	1%	$2,554.00	78%
52	54	Parsons Corporation	Carey Smith, President and CEO	U.S.	$1,888.05	$1,911.91	-1%	$3,660.77	52%
53	56	Serco	Rupert Soames, Group CEO	UK	$1,870.54	$1,736.39	8%	$6,085.59	31%
54	53	Sierra Nevada Corporation	Eren Ozmen, Chairwoman, President and Owner, and Fatih Ozmen, CEO and Owner	U.S.	$1,856.00	$1,918.00	-3%	$2,106.00	88%
55	51	Kawasaki Heavy Industries	Yasuhiko Hashimoto, President and CEO	Japan	$1,848.76	$2,026.50	-9%	$13,368.34	14%
56	61	Bharat Electronics Limited	Anandi Ramalingam, Chairman and Managing Director *	India	$1,811.78	$1,440.00	26%	$2,018.41	90%
57	63	Vectrus	Charles Prow, President and CEO	U.S.	$1,768.54	$1,383.90	28%	$1,783.67	99%
58	64	Hensoldt AG	Thomas Mueller, CEO	Germany	$1,743.67	$1,377.58	27%	$1,743.67	100%
59	57	Korea Aerospace Industries	Ahn Hyun-ho, President and CEO	South Korea	$1,709.05	$1,716.71	0%	$2,224.68	77%
60	58	BWX Technologies	Rex Geveden, President and CEO	U.S.	$1,605.22	$1,634.58	-2%	$2,124.07	76%
61	59	Ball Corporation	Dan W. Fisher, President and CEO *	U.S.	$1,599.00	$1,495.00	7%	$13,800.00	12%
62	65	LIG Nex1	Kim Ji-Chan, President and CEO	South Korea	$1,590.78	$1,357.05	17%	$1,590.78	100%
63	62	Melrose Industries	Simon Peckham, Chief Executive	UK	$1,544.57	$1,416.83	9%	$10,315.49	15%
64	66	QinetiQ Plc	Steve Wadey, CEO	UK	$1,502.87	$1,270.16	18%	$1,803.45	83%
65	60	Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc.	Eileen Drake, CEO and President	U.S.	$1,485.00	$1,472.00	1%	$2,092.00	71%
66	67	Curtiss-Wright Corporation	Lynn M. Bamford, Chair and CEO	U.S.	$1,383.64	$1,263.29	10%	$2,505.93	55%
67	68	Turkish Aerospace Industries	Temel Kotil, President and CEO	Turkey	$1,302.95	$1,256.42	4%	$1,565.61	83%
68	70	Moog Inc.	John R. Scannell, Chairman and CEO	U.S.	$1,299.48	$1,238.36	5%	$2,851.99	46%
69	72	Kongsberg Gruppen	Geir Haoy, President and CEO	Norway	$1,288.21	$1,064.72	21%	$3,191.91	40%
70	NEW	Polish Armaments Group	Sebastian Chwalek, President of the Management Board	Poland	$1,283.66	$1,160.86	11%	$1,755.11	73%
71	81	CAE	Marc Parent, President and CEO	Canada	$1,277.92	$921.35	39%	$2,689.13	48%
72	76	Navantia	Ricardo Domínguez García-Baquero, Chairman	Spain	$1,163.32	$999.24	16%	$1,545.43	75%
73	71	Viasat	Richard Baldridge, President and CEO	U.S.	$1,086.72	$1,066.30	2%	$2,787.64	39%
74	75	Aerospace Corporation	Steven J. Isakowitz, President and CEO	U.S.	$1,084.50	$1,032.00	5%	$1,162.80	93%
75	69	Austal	Paddy Gregg, CEO	Australia	$1,083.60	$1,239.39	-13%	$1,174.07	92%
76	79	Mitre	Jason Providakes, President and CEO	U.S.	$1,010.00	$984.00	3%	$2,100.00	48%
77	77	Howmet Aerospace	John C. Plant, CEO	U.S.	$944.68	$999.21	-5%	$4,972.00	19%
78	73	Maxar Technologies	Daniel Jablonsky, President and CEO	U.S.	$936.00	$1,062.00	-12%	$1,770.00	53%
79	83	Ultra Electronics	Simon Pryce, CEO	UK	$920.69	$832.90	11%	$1,170.05	79%
80	NEW	Eaton	Craig Arnold, Chairman and CEO	Ireland	$920.00	N/A	N/A	$19,628.00	5%
81	87	Mercury Systems	Mark Aslett, President and CEO	U.S.	$904.69	$776.17	17%	$924.00	98%
82	78	Meggitt	Tony Wood, CEO	UK	$878.05	$985.62	-11%	$2,090.61	42%
83	NEW	Teledyne Technologies	Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President and CEO	U.S.	$876.60	$578.40	52%	$4,614.30	19%
84	84	AAR Corp.	John M. Holmes, President and CEO	U.S.	$845.90	$812.77	4%	$1,652.00	51%
85	86	HEICO	Laurans A. Mendelson, Chairman and CEO	U.S.	$823.81	$786.28	5%	$1,865.68	44%
86	NEW	Roketsan	Murat Ikinci, CEO	Turkey	$814.16	$572.29	42%	$814.16	100%
87	NEW	Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions	Mike Kahn, President and CEO	U.S.	$806.59	$762.06	6%	$1,013.92	80%
88	90	Day & Zimmermann	Hal Yoh III, Chair and CEO	U.S.	$759.54	$741.94	2%	$2,700.00	28%
89	97	Ukroboronprom	Yuriy Husyev, Director General	Ukraine	$754.57	$650.61	16%	$1,451.65	52%
90	100	Indra	Ignacio Mataix, CEO *	Spain	$752.35	$594.33	27%	$4,010.19	19%
91	NEW	TTM Technologies	Thomas T. Edman, President and CEO	U.S.	$742.08	$757.92	-2%	$2,248.74	33%
92	89	Woodward Inc.	Charles Blankenship, Chairman, CEO and President *	U.S.	$711.03	$764.00	-7%	$2,245.83	32%
93	82	Fluor Corporation	David Constable, Chairman and CEO	U.S.	$706.30	$864.20	-18%	$12,400.00	6%
94	91	Lumen Technologies	Jeff Storey, President and CEO	U.S.	$687.21	$728.29	-6%	$19,687.00	3%
95	92	Battelle	Lewis Von Thaer, President and CEO	U.S.	$663.00	$705.00	-6%	$10,000.00	7%
96	NEW	Diehl Group	Klaus Richter, CEO	Germany	$651.75	$577.60	13%	$3,400.01	19%
97	NEW	Nammo	Morten Brandtzaeg, President and CEO	Norway	$641.04	$511.07	25%	$811.44	79%
98	NEW	Saudi Arabian Military Industries	Walid Abukhaled, CEO	Saudi Arabia	$604.95	$20.18	2898%	$806.17	75%
99	NEW	Patria	Esa Rautalinko, President and CEO	Finland	$602.59	$565.69	7%	$647.90	93%
100	95	Embraer	Francisco Gomes Neto, President and CEO	Brazil	$594.40	$653.87	-9%	$4,197.20	14%

.

Interestingly, Warren’s report lists Pfizer as a defense contractor, arguing that it did extensive Pentagon contracting during the COVID pandemic and that the pharmaceutical company retained 73 former Pentagon officials.

Warren’s report also noted that a Raytheon board member, Margaret L. O’Sullivan, is a current member of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s Foreign Policy Advisory Board and served as deputy national security adviser under George W. Bush for Afghanistan and Iraq.

Former Defense Secretary James Mattis, who oversaw massacres in Fallujah and a wedding bombing in Mukaradeeb as commander of the 1^st Marine Division in Iraq, is another poster child of the revolving door who now sits on General Dynamics’ Board of Directors.

Yet another is current Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a former Raytheon Board member who has awarded more than $30 billion in government contracts to Raytheon since his appointment, which Warren inexplicably did not oppose.

Cold War Era Poster Boy

The revolving door is not new; but has been a problem for a long, long time.

During the Cold War, one of the poster boys for it was Roswell Gilpatric, the Deputy Defense Secretary from 1961-1964 who served as Special Counsel for General Dynamics, a top arms manufacturer, and was a close friend of its CEO, Frank Pace.

A childhood friend of Nelson Rockefeller and protégé of former Defense Secretary Robert Lovett, Gilpatric admitted before the Senate Armed Services Committee in January 1961 that he was still receiving $21,000 per year from his law firm, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which represented General Dynamics.

As Deputy Defense Secretary, Gilpatric became involved in negotiating a $6.5 billion Pentagon contract—the largest for military planes in American history at that time—to General Dynamics for construction of the Tactical Fighter Experimental (TFX) fighter plane (later F-111) in March 1962 that Boeing had been more qualified to handle.^[1]

The TFX became a financial disaster with the cost per plane ballooning from $2.8 million in 1962 to $22 million by 1970 and planes being overweight and militarily ineffective.^[2] A Senate subcommittee headed by John McClellan (D-Ark.) found Gilpatric” guilty of conflict of interest for awarding the TFX contract to General Dynamics” since he had been a “top level counselor” to the company for over two years prior to joining the Pentagon, and therefore “should have disqualified himself from the decision-making process.”^[3]

After he resigned his Pentagon position, Gilpatric went back to work for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, which continued to represent General Dynamics, and was paid over $100,000 per year, a fortune for the time.

President Lyndon B. Johnson, who allegedly received a $100,000 payoff for the TFX contract, took good care of Gilpatric by appointing him to several high-profile positions, notably Presidential Emissary to Portugal, to the President’s Task Force on Nuclear Proliferation, and as a President’s consultant on international problems.^[4]

Iraq War Architects Cash In

Derek Seidman details in a recent article in Truthout how many of the key architects of the Iraq War have benefited from the revolving door, finding positions with defense industry giants, tech firms and Wall Street investors, and enjoying the good life, raking in consulting and speaker fees, their images washed as they profit handsomely from the insider access they provide.

Seidman gives the example of Paul Wolfowitz, George W. Bush’s Deputy Defense Secretary, who in 2013 was appointed to the board of a tech company, LaserLock—now VerifyMe—and strategic advisory council of NGP Energy Capital Management, an energy-focused private equity firm that oversees billions in oil and gas investments and is partnered with private equity behemoth and Iraq war profiteer, the Carlyle Group.

George Tenet, the CIA director who skewed intelligence to push for the Iraq war, jumped onto defense tech corporate boards like L-1 Identity Solutions, Guidance Software and QinetiQ Group that cash in from government contracts, as well as In-Q-Tel—a venture capital arm of the CIA, and is chairman of the secretive private investment firm Allen & Company.

An “Ugly Underbelly” at the Pentagon

Warren said that the “Pentagon Alchemy” report revealed “an ugly underbelly at the Pentagon.”

During a subcommittee hearing after its release, she grilled Pentagon lawyers, telling them that “if a defense industry staffer used to work in the next cubicle over from a Pentagon acquisitions officer, there’s a better chance that the industry staffer can get his phone calls and emails returned.”

Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), joined Warren in highlighting former Pentagon officials who had gone on to work for foreign governments, including those who have committed serious human rights abuses. Kaine pointed to a Washington Post report that found the Defense and State Departments approved 95% of some 500 veterans’ requests to work for foreign governments since 2015.

An analysis of the Pentagon report from the Quincy Institute found that more than half of these veterans worked for the UAE. It also noted that the list included 77 former senior officials working for foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Army General Counsel Carrie Ricci noted at the hearing that “the vast majority of Army personnel” who were approved to work for the UAE and Saudi Arabia…are largely connected to our foreign military sales programs. They’ve been maintainers who have been hired by these countries to help maintain the equipment through security cooperation.”

Toward a New Nye Committee?

Ideally, Warren’s report would precipitate a more extensive congressional investigation modeled after the 1934 Nye Committee hearings, headed by Gerald P. Nye, a Republican from North Dakota, which looked into allegations that manufacturers of armaments had unduly influenced the American decision to enter World War I.^[5]

According to Nye Committee reports, weapon suppliers reaped enormous profits at the cost of more than 53,000 American battlefield fatalities. Historian Paul A.C. Koistinen has written that the Nye Committee represented “among the most significant congressional investigating agencies in American history” as it “uncovered and explicated the dynamics of an emerging military-industrial complex.”^[6]

During the 1930s, negative publicity regarding the role of munitions makers in the Great War was aroused by the publication of exposés such as Seymour Waldman’s Death and Profits: A Study of the War Policies Commission (1932), a Book-of-the Month Club selection that portrayed a “world-wide munitions racket,” and Merchants of Death (1934), by H.C. Engelbrecht and F.C. Hanighen, which blamed managers in war industries for ignoring the social consequences of their work. 

Over a period of 18 months, the Nye Committee held 93 hearings and questioned more than 200 witnesses, including banker J. P. Morgan, Jr., and chemical manufacturer Pierre du Pont, who profited massively from its manufacture of gunpowder. 

Based on these hearings the Nye Committee charged that private armament interests worked contrary to arms embargoes and treaties, sold weapons to both sides during World War I, stimulated arms races between friendly nations, and benefited from excess profits with the government’s blessing.

The inquiry was led by chief counsel Stephen Rauschenbusch, son of the noted progressive theologian Walter Rauschenbusch, and drew upon extensive research in the files of the State, War, Navy, Commerce and Treasury departments, the Federal Reserve Board, the House of Morgan, the Wilson papers, Robert Lansing, Edward M. House, and key subpoenaed witnesses. 

J. P. Morgan’s export department was found to have operated as a buying agent for the Allies and helped guide the massive growth of the U.S. munitions industry during the war. 

To keep the multi-billion dollar operation going, the Morgan partners led the way in providing American financial assistance to the Allies, which totaled nearly $3 billion up to April 1917.

That investment, Nye and his colleagues concluded, was protected and partially paid off when the United States entered the First World War and took up the Allies’ financial burden. In carrying out its responsibilities, J. P. Morgan and Company dealt regularly with political and economic elites on both sides of the Atlantic, including the British prime minister and the American president. 

The Nye Committee ultimately confirmed many allegations about special interests and their role in dictating government policy and compromising U.S. democracy. Its disclosures aroused great public interest and added to the public’s distrust of war.

With an eye to the future, the committee endorsed the adoption of stringent neutrality laws, including prohibitions on financial assistance and munition sales to belligerents.

The committee also advocated for strict regulation of the arms industry and specified that the U.S. should not allow a private banking house to act as principal financier and supplier of one side in a war. Senator Nye himself favored the nationalization of the arms industry in order to take the profit motive out of war. 

In January 1937, nearly a year after the conclusion of the Nye Committee investigation, a Gallup poll revealed that 70% of Americans thought it was a mistake to enter the Great War and that 82% favored prohibition of the sale of munitions by private parties.

A new Nye Committee today—building off of the Warren report—would inevitably reveal similar abuses underlying what is now a permanent warfare state.

It might further help arouse public opprobrium leading ultimately to the systemic social change that we need.

---

1. See Edgar F. Tatro, “The TFX Scandal’s Link to the JFK Assassination Conspiracy,” Garrison: The Journal of History and Deep Politics, January 2023, 98-102. A longtime partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Maurice T. Moore, was the director of General Dynamics from 1962-1972. Fred Korth, the U.S. Navy Secretary at the time of the TFK deal who was tight with then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, had been President of the Continental First Bank in Ft. Worth, Texas and personally approved a $400,000 loan to General Dynamics. From 1953-1960. Korth was Director of Bell Aerospace, which made a fortune producing helicopters used in the Vietnam War. ↑

2. Tatro, “The TFX Scandal’s Link to the JFK Assassination Conspiracy,” 125. General Dynamics financial structure was managed by corrupt people with links to organized crime, including the dominant figure controlling the company, Henry Crown, who was an essential godfather of the Chicago mafia and whose mob associates included a “rogue’s gallery of sinister villains from Chicago and beyond,” according to researcher Edgar F. Tatro. ↑

3. Tatro, “The TFX Scandal’s Link to the JFK Assassination Conspiracy,” 128. Gilpatric had urged restraint during the Cuban missile crisis, but was a member of the special task force which hatched Operation Mongoose, a dirty tricks campaign aimed at destabilizing the government of Fidel Castro in Cuba. He pushed Kennedy to increase military spending. In the Eisenhower administration, Gilpatric headed a secret task force charged with “preventing Communist domination of Vietnam.” Gilpatric argued forcefully for U.S. commitment to halt the Communist threat in South Vietnam. In his position with the Kennedy administration, Gilpatric later signed off on the overthrow of the Diem government.↑

4. Tatro, “The TFX Scandal’s Link to the JFK Assassination Conspiracy,” 84. Don B. Reynolds, a Maryland insurance salesman who recruited Johnson’s political fixer Bobby Baker into his firm, testified before the Senate Rules Committee that Baker had told him he had received a $100,000 payoff for the TFX contract, and that “Johnson had interceded to make sure that the TFX was awarded to General Dynamics;” receiving the money as a reward. Reynolds said that when he was inside Baker’s office, a man identified as Roy Evans, the president of Grumman aircraft, then a General Dynamics subsidiary, left a blue flight bag on Baker’s desk filled with $100,000.↑

5. The below section is taken from Jeremy Kuzmarov, Charles F. Howlett and Roger Peace, “United States Participation in World War One,” https://peacehistory-usfp.org/ww1/. ↑

6. Paul A.C. Koistinen, Planning War, Pursuing Peace: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1920-1939 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998), 254. ↑

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