The Trillion Dollar War Machine - by William D Hartung & Ben Freeman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A hard-hitting investigation into how the Pentagon's runaway spending embroils America in foreign wars, squanders its wealth, and enriches a privileged elite

"A damning indictment of the conflicts of interest running rampant in the defense establishment."―Publishers Weekly

America spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on its military. This extraordinary spending not only detracts from our ability to address pressing social problems but compels us into foreign wars to justify our vast arsenal. Sold to us in the name of "security," our military industrial complex actually makes us far less safe.

Top policy experts William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman follow the profits of militarism from traditional Pentagon contractors, which receive more than half of the Pentagon's budget, to the upstart high-tech firms that shamelessly promote unproven and destabilizing technologies. They unmask the enablers of the war machine--politicians, lobbyists, the media, Hollywood, think tanks, and so many more--whose work enriches a wealthy elite at the expense of everybody else, spreading conflict around the world and embroiling America in endless wars.

A damning tour de force, The Trillion Dollar War Machine shows who is pulling the strings and pushing for war, and offers a blueprint for how we can shut down the war machine and restore American security and prosperity.

Review Quotes

"Extremely timely and necessary... [Hartung's and Freeman's] diagnosis offers a map of the structural forces that continuously push America toward war. However, do not despair; the authors, as they should, propose a successful path forward."--Common Dreams

"Because the book is so well researched and easily readable, I presume many will be moved to want to do something, and Hartung and Freeman offer a foundation for action."--John Tierney, former member of Congress and the current executive director of the Council for a Livable World

​"A resounding denunciation of a military-industrial complex gone metastatic."--Kirkus

"A corrupt military-industrial complex peddles shoddy weapons that can't win wars but still wreak havoc around the world, according to this coruscating exposé... It's a damning indictment of the conflicts of interest running rampant in the defense establishment."--Publishers Weekly

"Hartung and Freeman show that the ecosystem of state-privileged, corporate militarists has become a beast. The result is a war machine that can't protect us, a foreign policy that flirts with Armageddon, a broken domestic society, and a people who cannot see that the very fabric of our reality is a militarist matrix crafted by lies and sustained by our blood and our souls."--Scott Horton, director of the Libertarian Institute

"Hartung and Freeman tell a tragic story of how the military industrial complex successfully survived President Eisenhower's dark warning and now shapes the military budget and our escalating rivalry with China. But even more ominous, Silicon Valley has joined the game with promises of AI miracles and lethal systems and gadgets galore. Sobering--and well worth reading."--Jerry Brown, former governor of California

"This is it: the definitive account of America's wasteful, corrupt, and astonishingly ineffective military industrial complex. William Hartung and Ben Freeman have done their fellow citizens a great service. Taking their message to heart is a job for the rest of us."--Andrew Bacevich, cofounder of the Quincy Institute and coeditor of Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars

About the Author

William D. Hartung is a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute, focusing on the arms industry and military spending. He is the author of Prophets of War and resides in New York City.

Ben Freeman, director of democratizing foreign policy at the Quincy Institute, holds a PhD from Texas A&M. He focuses on investigating money in politics, military spending, and foreign influence. He lives in central Florida.