Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex [Hardcover]

William D. Hartung (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 25, 2010

Enthralling and explosive, Prophets of War is an exposé of America’s largest military contractor, Lockheed Martin. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his famous warning about the dangers of the military industrial complex, he never would have dreamed that a company could accumulate the kind of power and influence now wielded by this behemoth company.

As a full-service weapons maker, Lockheed Martin receives over $25 billion per year in Pentagon contracts. From aircraft and munitions, to the abysmal Star Wars missile defense program, to the spy satellites that the NSA has used to monitor Americans’ phone calls without their knowledge, Lockheed Martin’s reaches into all areas of US defense and American life. William Hartung’s meticulously researched history follows the company’s meteoric growth and explains how this arms industry giant has shaped US foreign policy for decades.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Corporate clout, military innovation, and political influence make an uneasy mix in this smart and thorough corporate history of Lockheed Martin's emergence as the nation's largest weapons contractor. Hartung (And Weapons for All) traces the company's rise from unimpressive military aircraft manufacturer in WWI through its emergence as a major supplier of fighters and bombers for the Allies in WWII to corporate behemoth and power player in setting American foreign policy. The author explores how deeply Lockheed's tentacles have penetrated American economic and political life, pulling the curtain back on decades of unsavory dealings: Lockheed's decision to sell airplanes to Japan in the late 1930s (they were later converted to military use); reports of widespread bribery of foreign executives and politicians; and vengeful retribution against Pentagon whistleblowers. Hartung reveals how the company's adaptability has helped it survive--and expand--even as its reputation became tarnished, and echoes President Eisenhower's argument that the only way to ensure against "military-industrial" abuses is to have "an alert and engaged citizenry." This book is a fine step in that direction. (Jan.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Hartung, a frequent commentator on the relationship between government and military contractors, takes readers through the history of Lockheed Martin, a company that began humbly in 1916 and has become a “mega-firm” whose ties to the U.S. government are, at least as presented here, at best ominous and at worst downright frightening. The author, who directs the New America Foundation’s Arms and Security Initiative, sounds like he has a whole arsenal of axes to grind. In his view, the story of Lockheed Martin is a story of shady foreign deals, influence peddling, massive cost overruns, price irregularities, conspiracy, bribery, and shoddy workmanship. He has very little that is approving to say about the company (which, to be sure, is a highly influential and powerful weapons maker), and some readers might wonder if there is perhaps more to the story—a more balanced version—that Hartung isn’t telling. But he argues his case forcefully, and while the book is clearly written from a specific political point of view, it undeniably provides much food for thought. --David Pitt

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (December 25, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568584202
• ISBN-13: 978-1568584201
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The Military-Industrial Complex in Action January 9, 2011

By Retired Reader

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is built around two intertwined themes: a minor theme on the corporate history of the Lockheed Martin Aerospace Company (LM); and a major theme on the workings of what President Eisenhower famously referred to as the "military-industrial complex." This book is not an attack on LM, but uses the aerospace giant as the center piece of an exposition on the inter-action of the Department of Defense (DOD), the Congress, and private contractors in the design and acquisition of defense systems.

Actually the corporate history of LM is interesting enough that one wished Hartung had gone into more detail. In any event it provides enough of a sketchy history to follow how small scale airplane manufacturing effort begun by the Loughead brothers (who latter changed the spelling to Lockheed to avoid having people mispronounce their name) was gradually transformed into the aero-space giant that it is today.

The bulk of the book really is concerned with showing why what should be a fairly straight forward process of a military service buying a weapon system has become such a convoluted and complicated business. Since before its merger with Martin Marietta, LM was primarily an aircraft manufacturer, Hartung provides a lot of examples of USAF procurement practices with the unwritten assumption they are representative of DOD as a whole.

First there is the universal practice of low bidding. That is a contractor will purposely try to win a contractor by offering to produce a system at a much lower cost than what it will actually cost to produce. Once the contract is awarded the cost then can be adjusted upward in collusion with the client. Then there is the matter of `requirements creep' once a contract is awarded the client has no qualms about changing or adding to the original requirements. Engineering new requirements into a system can be very costly. Finally there is congress and the matter of protecting jobs in states and congressional districts. Cost overruns are supported by congress to keep plants open and job growth going in key districts.

Although LM is used to exemplify this process throughout this book, it is the DOD procurement system and pork barrel politics that are actually at fault here. There are no villains here, but a lot of short sighted fools.

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The untold tale of the Pentagon's symbiotic relationship with defense contractor Lockheed Martin January 13, 2011

By Rolf Dobelli HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Muckraking author William Hartung delves into the military-industrial complex with a corporate profile of its largest, most successful beneficiary, Lockheed Martin. Lockheed has survived bankruptcy and lean financial times, and Hartung contends that it has thrived in part through questionable business practices, milking taxpayers of billions and abetting Pentagon malfeasance. Hartung weaves a tale of the interface of armaments and politics, and says alleged Pentagon incompetence benefited both Lockheed and individual states with pork-barrel military projects. This complex, well-told story states that Lockheed eventually garnered $25 billion annually in defense contracts and now plays an outsized role in affecting US foreign policy. getAbstract recommends this book as important background reading about the corporate-military complex, the shadowy processes that may affect policy and in the economic history of the US defense industry.

58 of 73 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Final Review: Boring, Limited, Not for General Audience January 3, 2011

By Robert David STEELE Vivas HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

After reading this book, which I found to be extremely boring, I have to give Pierre Sprey very high marks for his substantive contributions to the C-SPAN Book interview of the author. My summary of that interview is therefore an important part of my summary of this book. It can be seen at Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog by searching for the two names Pierre Sprey William Hartung without quotes or brackets.

I reduce the book to four from five stars because it is a lazy book--no charts, no maps, just a blast of names and dates and numbers--VERY boring. However righteous, this book could have been much better.

Comments:

+ 29B per year in revenue from the Pentagon, probably is low number, is not that much.

+ Lockheed grossly exaggerates job numbers and refuses to back them up.

+ Lockheed wins with low bids and the Pentagon acquisition folks are so inept or politically influenced they accept that.

+ Lockheed is the poster child for a broken acquisition system--quite right--that does not make them the bad guys.

+ Lesson learned from U-2: intelligence is irrelevant if it is not used by the decision-makers. Today we spend close to $90 billion a year on intelligence that provides less than 4% of what we need to know, and even then, intelligence for lack of integrity is impotent.

+ Wikileaks is alive and well within the Pentagon, but among authorized individuals who do not leak to the outside. I see that exploding into the public eye in the near future.

+ US Air Force is treasonous for its hatred of honest acquisition officers. Chuck Spinney is my friend and most admired mentor, I do not know Fitzgerald or Durham, but I have a news flash for the US Air Force: Integrity and truth are coming back into vogue. I never lost mine, others appear to be reconnecting with theirs.

+ Bribery stories are not that new, and the author misses the larger reality that CIA used the gold captured in the Philippines as a slush fund for bribing German, Italian, and Japanese politicians, setting the stage if you will, for Lockheed.

+ Norm Augustine, who originally wanted to be a fire ranger, comes out in this book very well. John Deutch and William Perry come out much less well.

+ The author does not cover this, but the book makes it clear that the US aversion to having an Industrial Policy for decades is what led to corruption concentrating (and gutting) capability. Lockheed is not too big to fail, but it is too big to perform reliably.

+ Eye opener for me is Lockheed's expansion into state and local out-sourcing of inherently governmental functions. This comes as I have recently learned about the out-sourcing of health industry "profit recovery" to a cabal of firms including Booz Hamilton and led by the Connelly Law Firm.

+ Moderately interesting but not comprehensive account of Project for the New American Century and NATO membership as a deliberate sales campaign.

+ Overall, a general sense of deja vu. Lockheed is expensive and it does not deliver the value that could be gotten from having a government that is honest and effective in and of itself, with many small ships and small airplanes that meet actual requirements. Lockheed failed big time with Deepwater and related programs, but that is not their fault: the US Navy has no clue how to design and order ships anymore (not sure they ever did, they just had better contractors--read Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats That Won World War II or my summary review for a still valid tale on idiocy in acquisition management).

Bottom line: BORING. No creativity in visualization of inter-locking boards, special relationships among flags/politicians, etcetera. This book is a solid reference making the most of news articles and a handful of books, but I certainly do not recommend it for the general reader. Citizens and expert readers may be interested in my book reviews organized as Worth a Look: Book Review Lists (Negative) (use REVIEW bar at the top).

Preliminary Comments that Remain Valid:

As for all that great technology Lockheed builds, are we talking about the exploding rockets, the airplanes that cannot fly and require one Air Base/Air Force per plane to maintain, or just the little things like metrics on one end and inches on the other? And since secret intelligence is my domain, I'll tell you right now most of what vendors provide the US Intelligence Community is expensive non-interoperable crap--Trailblazer by SAIC comes to mind but I have no doubt Lockheed has at least six major projects with firehose collection and zero processing--Gorgon Stare with dementia in the outer atmosphere.

Lockheed is NOT the "bad guy." Joe Markowitz taught me years ago that contractors do what we pay them do, we who tolerate careerists and program managers who spend for promotion rather than defense, who fail to do functional requirements documents and proper technical evaluations, and who allow themselves to be influenced by serving and retired flag officers who parked their integrity at field grade--WE are the bad guys in this book. Lockheed is capable of great work--we just don't demand it, and by the time they and others deliver garbage, everyone responsible on the inside has been promoted, is long gone, and no one is held accountable for treason against the public interest. I also give the White House and Congress a pass on this--the ONE place I expect integrity to "stand fast" is in the ranks of the uniformed military, and it is the absence of that integrity that I believe has done so much harm over the past fifty years.

The US military is going belly up because all three of the big services got hooked on big contracts, lost touch with reality (little things like 10 to 30 ton bridges, line of sight under 900 meters most places, and oh, did I mention, the standard aviation day is actually HOT and HUMID?). See the USMC Expeditionary Environment Analytic Model at Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog for a properly done strategic acquisition endeavor that was abandoned when the founding Colonel and I moved on.

Ten books (counting Higgins above) where my summary reviews add context:

Defense Facts of Life: The Plans/Reality Mismatch
Why We Fight
The Fog of War: Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier
The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the United States and the World
House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II--Updated Through 2003
Unconquerable World Power Nonviolence

Have not read but like author and title:
The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them

Books the author relied upon (links active at Phi Beta Iota copy of the review--Amazon is too limiting):
Barons of the Sky: From Early Flight to Strategic Warfare: The Story of the American Aerospace Industry
Beyond the Horizons: The Lockheed Story
Pushing the Envelope: The American Aircraft Industry
Arms Bazaar: From Lebanon to Lockheed
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
The C-5A scandal;: An inside story of the military-industrial complex
The High Priests of Waste
The Pentagonists: An Insider's View of Waste, Mismanagement and Fraud in Defense Spending
The Pentagon Underground: Hidden Patriots Fighting Against Deceit And...

Books cited in C-SPAN interview by the author as interviewed by Pierre Sprey:
Harry S. Truman and the War Scare of 1948: A Successful Campaign to Deceive the Nation
Lockheed sales mission: 70 days over Tokyo (1976, available on Amazon)
The Conservative Case for NATO.(North Atlantic Treaty Organization) (digital article available on Amazon)

Books by the author on this same topic:
How Much Are You Making on the War Daddy? A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration
And Weapons for All