"During the 1960s / 1970s Vietnam War era, the term “military-industrial complex” became a favorite cliché of the Marxist, long-haired, “peace-love-dope” pseudo-intellectual hippy crowd that wrongly blamed this shadowy “complex” for a war which actually originated with Ike’s deployment of “advisers” (CIA) to Vietnam during the late 1950s.
In years since, conservative patriots and libertarians have carelessly adopted the term as well. The problem is, there is not now nor was there ever any “military-industrial complex” that could “endanger our liberties or democratic processes,” for the simple reason that military generals / admirals and manufacturing CEO’s can neither take America to war, nor dictate the size of defense budgets, nor influence politicians to do so.
Sure, there may be glory-seeking military men and greedy arms manufacturers who, for obvious reasons, love war. But they do not have political power. Globalist media and banking moguls install the politicians and the politicians appoint the military leaders – not the other way around. Seriously, can anyone cite a single instance in American history in which a general or an armaments manufacturing CEO, acting independently of the political class, dictated our domestic politics or foreign affairs? The answer is, “no,” not even close."
https://www.realhistorychan.com/myth-of-military-industrial-complex.html