Follow us on social

Capitol-pentagon

After 50 years, this DoD watchdog still has plenty of bite

For decades the Center for Defense Information was filled with former top military brass providing checks and shaping policies.

Analysis | Military Industrial Complex

Admiral Gene R. La Rocque was sent to Vietnam in 1967 to interview top commanders, field officers, and soldiers and reported back that the war was unwinnable, ruining, some said, a very promising career. Four years later he retired early, inspired by President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address “to guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.” 

The Center for Defense Information (CDI) was born in April 1972 with the assistance of Navy veteran and businessman Arthur D. Berliss, Jr., (1914-2010), and other entrepreneurs like Harold Willens (1914-2003), and financial backing from the Fund for Peace, thanks to Lindsay Mattison.

CDI then set up its first Capitol Hill office, staffed by former Congressional aide David T. Johnson.

The center quickly gelled as a group of retired military officers, sharp academics, and former Congressional staffers balancing what the Pentagon said about ongoing wars, foreign and military policies, defense budgeting, and nuclear warfighting. The global news media, academia, and politicians began seeking out the center’s expertise and data. 

Through the 1970’s, CDI's experts spoke out against the Vietnam War, weapons like the B-1 bomber, the MX missile, and tactical nuclear missiles deployed to Western Europe, and many other matters addressed in its Defense Monitornewsletter.

By the mid-1980s, CDI’s associate directors included the former commander of the carrier Midway, Rear Admiral Eugene J. Carroll, Jr., submariner Captain James Bush, Major General William T. Fairborn of the Marines, and Army Chaplain Major General Kermit D. Johnson — predominantly combat veterans who opted out of more lucrative defense industry jobs to tell it the way that it really was.

Despite the Pentagon’s animosity to CDI, it began to have a real impact inspiring other reformers and whistleblowers of waste, fraud and abuse to write and advocate for change like Chuck Spinney, Pierre Sprey, and Winslow Wheeler.     

CDI grew in size and stature as many like-minded Congressional offices and think-tanks solicited its advice on opposing the nuclear arms race and speaking out against covert and overt wars in Iran, Grenada, Nicaragua, Panama, and Iraq. Meanwhile, the Center made global headlines in 1987, hosting the first high level meeting of retired American and Soviet admirals and generals, "to publicly discuss their nations’ military force deployments and examine ways to reduce the risk of war.” 

With the help of longtime peace advocate Sanford Gottlieb, a former director of SANE, filmmaker Arthur Kanegis, and later director of television Mark Sugg, the organization in 1987 established a weekly documentary series, “America’s Defense Monitor,” which aired on public TV stations in the U.S. and Canada, as well as the Armed Forces Network. 

Over the next 15 years the program won accolades and awards as it covered all bases, touching on virtually every issue the Center focused on, from opposing international arms sales to expanding women’s roles in the military. With high quality footage for the time, episodes featured interviews of prominent experts and critics, supporters and opponents of reform.

In the post-Cold War 1990s, CDI kept up its visits to the embargoed island of Cuba, arguing that America should treat it as it dealt with other communist nations like Vietnam and China, while quietly pushing for more democratization. Before his 1993 retirement, La Rocque and staff criticized unnecessary overly expensive weapons like the Star Wars missile defense system, the F-22 fighter, and the B-2 bomber.

Admiral Carroll took over as director, traveling far and wide to oppose destabilizing nuclear strategy and weaponry. The center called out the Navy for using Vieques Island as a bombing range, and for harming dolphins and whales inadvertently. It also supported Okinawans and others who wanted to scale back America’s vast network of overseas bases, to clean up the toxic legacy of America’s nuclear bomb-making, and opposed NATO expansion.

In 1997, Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan, who also served several years as director, warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of “The Clinton Administration’s headlong rush to NATO expansion,” noting that, “We could well be on brink of reviving superpower confrontation …if we continue plans to bring Eastern European countries into NATO while excluding Russia.” A warning unheeded, and which has resulted in the current global crisis caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. 

In the new millennium, with former nuclear missile launch control officer Dr. Bruce Blair at the helm, the center responded to 9-11 with massive growth and CDI offices opened in Brussels and Moscow, more documentary platforms allied with CNN and PBS through Azimuth Media, and the creation of international networks to discuss and debate issues in China and by Farsi-speaking peoples in southwest Asia.

CDI unfortunately dissolved in 2012, but was absorbed and kept alive by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), where it remains today. In the last decade, POGO’s work by Winslow Wheeler, Mandy Smithberger and Dan Grazier has revealed a myriad of problems involving the development of the unreasonably expensive F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, among other bloated and ineffective weapons systems. 

But there is always more work to be done, as stated in a 2009 Defense Monitorby Wheeler: …the Pentagon’s comprehension of its own material resources is a deep dark void. It can’t track its own money, it cooks its own books to make them appear in balance, and then it makes new spending decisions based on the phony data…There are three decades of GAO and DOD Inspector General reports on this mess.

The spirit of CDI prevails, demanding that not only American policymakers but global leaders continue to make essential changes and reforms that Admiral La Rocque and the organization strived for during the last half century.


US Capitol building (Ungvar/Shutterstock) & F-18 flies over the Pentagon (Everett Collection/Shutterstock)
Analysis | Military Industrial Complex
US Navy Taiwan Strait
TAIWAN STRAIT (August 23, 2019) – US Naval Officers scan the horizon from the bridge while standing watch, part of Commander, Amphibious Squadron 11, operating in the Indo-Pacific region to enhance interoperability with partners and serve as a ready-response force for any type of contingency. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Markus Castaneda)

Despite setbacks, trends still point to US foreign policy restraint

Military Industrial Complex

It’s been only a few days since Israel first struck Iranian nuclear and regime targets, but Washington’s remaining neoconservatives and long-time Iran hawks are already celebrating.

After more than a decade of calling for military action against Iran, they finally got their wish — sort of. The United States did not immediately join Israel’s campaign, but President Donald Trump acquiesced to Israel’s decision to use military force and has not meaningfully restrained Israel’s actions. For those hoping Trump would bring radical change to U.S. foreign policy, his failure to halt Israel’s preventative war is a disappointment and a betrayal of past promises.

keep readingShow less
iraqi protests iran israel
Top photo credit: Iraqi Shi'ite Muslims hold a cutout of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they attend a protest against Israeli strikes on Iran, in Baghdad, Iraq, June 16, 2025. REUTERS/Ahmed Saad

Iraq on razor's edge between Iran and US interests in new war

Middle East

As Israeli jets and Iranian rockets streak across the Middle Eastern skies, Iraq finds itself caught squarely in the crossfire.

With regional titans clashing above its head, Iraq’s fragile and hard-won stability, painstakingly rebuilt over decades of conflict, now hangs precariously in the balance. Washington’s own tacit acknowledgement of Iraq’s vulnerable position was laid bare by its decision to partially evacuate embassy personnel in Iraq and allow military dependents to leave the region.

This withdrawal, prompted by intelligence indicating Israeli preparations for long-range strikes, highlighted that Iraq’s airspace would be an unwitting corridor for Israeli and Iranian operations.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani is now caught in a complicated bind, attempting to uphold Iraq’s security partnership with the United States while simultaneously facing intense domestic pressure from powerful, Iran-aligned Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) factions. These groups, emboldened by the Israel-Iran clash, have intensified their calls for American troop withdrawal and threaten renewed attacks against U.S. personnel, viewing them as legitimate targets and enablers of Israeli aggression.

keep readingShow less
George Bush mission accomplished
This file photo shows Bush delivering a speech to crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, as the carrier steamed toward San Diego, California on May 1, 2003. via REUTERS

Déjà coup: Iran war activates regime change dead-enders

Washington Politics

By now you’ve likely seen the viral video of an Iranian television reporter fleeing off-screen as Israel bombed the TV station where she was recording live. As the Quincy Institute’s Adam Weinstein quickly pointed out, Israel's attack on the broadcasting facility is directly out of the regime change playbook, “meant to shake public confidence in the Iranian government's ability to protect itself” and by implication, Iran’s citizenry.

Indeed, in the United States there is a steady drumbeat of media figures and legislators who have been loudly championing Israel’s apparent desire to overthrow the regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.