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

Although the title of this book clearly signals William Hartung's feelings about Lockheed Martin (i.e. he doesn't like them); the book was actually a very good read, and once you adjusted for the clear bias against Lockheed Martin, it did contain a lot of relevant and valuable information about one of the Giants of the Aerospace Industry today. Having only recently retired from Lockheed Martin; I found the book particularly interesting. I would probably never have read the book, given my other interests and my preference for fiction, but for Lockheed Martin Corporate sending out an e-mail warning to employees not to respond to media inquiries regarding the book. Much of the book predates my time in Lockheed Martin; however, I was in Air Force Systems Command during the C-5A and C-5B fiascos, and the author's analysis of what happened on both sides of the fence appear to be accurate based upon my recollections. Through much of the last decade, I have lived through the rise of the "Services Sector". What was once simply "Services", is now "Information Systems and Global Solutions".Lockheed Martin is not a Saint; but then it is not the Devil that Hartung would suggest, either. Big is not inherently bad, and it is unfortunate that Hartung paints the Lockheed Martin workforce with the same brush he uses to criticize Lockheed Martin executives. The aerospace workforce is a highly educated, trained and motivated group of people, that work hard and actually make things happen. As a group they are unmatched in the world -- there is no other workforce in any other industry, that does so much for this country and the world. In a word, they are amazing-- and Hartung unfortunately misses this point, among others. Lockheed Martin Management is another matter. Like almost every other group of managers, directors and presidents in every large (and small) business in the world, they are a mixed collection of the good, the bad and the ugly. Unfortunately, no one has ever come up with a method for insuring that only the rightous and ethical are allowed to command; and Lockheed Martin has done no better at this than others. My personal observation and opinion lead me to believe that the current senior management of Lockheed Martin Corporation, Robert Stevens and Chris Kubasik, are among the best in the business world today. The quality of management varies considerably as you move out from the center, however. As noted, this is not unique to Lockheed Martin.This is a good read, and I would highly recommend it to any one trying to understand the Aerospace Industry and Government Procurement. Mr. Hartung is an excellent researcher, and he writes well. I don't agree with his underlying position that Lockheed Martin is slowly becoming Big Brother - it may provide a lot of different services to the government, but the government is still giving the orders, and if Lockheed Martin wasn't performing the contract, somebody else would be; and probably not doing as good a job.

Great!

Just finished "Prophets". Hartung is definitely an accomplished writer in the journalistic style. 250 pages of text literally flowed from start to finish. Furthermore, Hartung is an expert who has made a career of specializing in the "military industrial complex". He obviously has an agenda but he clearly knows his facts and I (as a libertarian on guard for propaganda) sensed no attempt to distort or fabricate. The reviews are divided along ideological lines with the liberals praising the work because it fully exposes the corruption of a huge corporation and the conservatives (unfairly) giving the work 1 star because they think that the corporation has been unfairly vilified. I give the work 4 stars because, while accurate and well written, "Prophet", in the end, omits an insightful analysis of the underlying problem. What is the root of the corruption problem and what can be done to correct and avoid it??? Concluding that the answer is political and that we citizens must be informed and stay vigilant is simplistic nonsense. I think most citizens already know that there is a high level of corruption in virtually all government contracting. It simply is greater in the defense industry because that industry is the biggest. Today we are all too familiar with "too big to fail." My point is that we cannot stop "corruption" and we certainly cannot stop corruption on the scale exposed in "Prophets" This is because of the principle that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". The left misconstrues this principle as applying only to corporations when in fact it applies with far more force to government.The real source of our problem is that we have reached the state where our government, over the years, has ignored constitutional limitations and gradually assumed absolute power. Although there is a growing popular movement to reign in government to the limits envisioned by our constitution, it is too little and too late because that the battle has been irretrievably lost over the years. We are simply going to have to reluctantly accept growing corruption until the people are so fed up that they develop the will to revolt in an attempt to reestablish a truly limited government. All of this was foreseen by our founding fathers who were well familiar with the historical tendencies of governments to abuse power. They also foresaw that the limits they had attempted to incorporate in the constitution, in the end, would not work. They were spectacularly prescient.

Hartung does an excellent job of putting all the pieces together to give a complete history of the "super company" Lockheed Martin. Understandably, any corporation with a long track record of wasting taxpayer money, frequent scandals, bribing officials (foreign and domestic), and a host of other seriously illegal and ethically shameful activities would not want someone to collect all of these misdeeds and present it as a cohesive, well-written story, as Hartung has done in Prophets of War. Importantly, the text is extensively supported with citations to trustworthy sources. Many times even, Hartung actually uses Lockheed presidents' and other company officials' own comments and admissions to present a case - a source that is quite hard to discredit.What Hartung's book also does is give somewhat of an inside look at the complex interactions and connections between mega-corporations, the legislative and executive branches of the Federal government, and the military. We have all heard of the various infringements on democracy that take place daily in Washington - such as lobbying, pork barrel politics, massive campaign donations, the "revolving door" between senior industry jobs and important government posts, etc. - but this book gives us many opportunities to follow a controversial issue from beginning to end, see exactly how Lockheed Martin used the aforementioned tactics to get their way, and see exactly why such tactics work and how disastrous the result is on our democracy, and on our tax dollars.The book is also written in simple prose - many common, colloquial phrases; not really the sometimes difficult to take academic style.

Whilst an interesting read and being a compilation of various bad examples of Lockheed Martin programmes and products, I find it strange how such a ‘bad’ company is still so highly rated by the US Government? Clearly a number of years out of date as programmes such as the F35 and other weapon systems are proving, the unfortunate situation in Ukraine is demonstrating the capability of equipment provided by the company. Similar books could be, and probably are, available regarding numerous large defence companies and equipments, but come the day the public seem to appreciate the dollars spent on securing their freedom. The book does tend to just repeat itself regarding the authors view of how bad Lockheed Martin is but I would suggest it has been overtaken by events.

good read

Wen das Thema interessiert der sollte dieses Buch unbedingt lesen....gut recherchiert und vieles war auch für mich neu kenne kaum ein buch das bessere insights zu lockheed bietet

Very informative and thoroughly researched. Gives a detailed breakdown of the military industrial complex and Lockheeds influence at every level of government and there decisions.

グライダーに魅せられた兄弟が創った小さな飛行機製造会社が、どういう仕組みを使ってどういう経緯を経て軍産複合体を構成するに至ったのかの物語。ペンタゴンとの人脈関係、契約の仕組み、ロビー活動の実態といったものが具体的に語られている。個人的には、おそらく2011年に書かれたのであろう「Epilogue to the Paperback Edition」で著者が熱くなっていることが感じられて楽しめた（このエピローグは日本語版には収録されていない）。きわめて良識に富んだ良書だと思う。それにしても、アフガニスタンの憲法の起草にまで手を出していたとは、さすがロッキードやのお(･o･)