The Military-Industrial Complex
Often, technology developed for military purposes, such as the complex design of jet airplanes, was easily transferred to the consumer market. The Boeing Aircraft Company — their Seattle plant is pictured here in the mid-1950s — became one of the leading commercial airplane manufacturers in the world in the 1960s, boosted in part by tax dollar–financed military contracts. Major American corporations — such as Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, General Electric, General Dynamics, and dozens of others — benefitted enormously from military contracts from the Department of Defense in the years after World War II. © Bettmann/Corbis.