Monday is the anniversary of President Dwight Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex" speech. That anniversary is more notable than past anniversaries because of the discussion being generated by calls from Congress and other sources to look at defense spending, and because of the ongoing debate over Secretary Gates's efforts to reshape the Pentagon.

James Ledbetter is the author of "Unwarranted Influence: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Military-Industrial Complex" and of an op-ed piece in the New York Times, "What Ike Got Right". He talked about the research for his book, and revealed some very interesting parallels between the early 1960s and today.

Click the audio link to hear my conversation with James Ledbetter.

Click to learn more about James Ledbetter's book

Click to read James Ledbetter's NY Times op-ed

President Eisenhower's speech: