
A history sheds light on venture capital’s ties to military-industrial complex - hhs
https://www.bookforum.com/print/2602/a-history-sheds-light-on-venture-capital-s-ties-to-the-military-industrial-complex-22006
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momokoko
There seems to be a lot of confusion in the US about what military spending
entails.

The WTO and other agreements largely limits what the US government is allowed
to contract only from US companies. One of the exceptions is national
security.

If something is national security related the US government can spend money
and restrict the companies it does business with to US companies.

It's just a hack on Keynesian Economics.

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sieabahlpark
I don't see this as an issue? Would we want our security software written by
foreign interests. Especially places like Australia

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sesteel
War and the preparation for war is a feedback loop. The military industrial
complex is a symptom of technology. The more tech we develop, the more things
we have to protect and the number of ways we can be attacked increases non-
linearly. Hence, this massive growing defense budget. If we stop developing
new tech, history has shown that somebody else will gain an advantage and try
to dominate us or an ally. Talk about tough nuts to crack.

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ivan_ah
If you're interested in learning more about the "early days" of SV, check out
this video by Steve Blank:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTC_RxWN_xo)
[1 hour]

Lots of it goes back to WWII and development of advanced radar and anti-radar
tech.

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tw1010
Anyone know how a good book or three about history of the military-industrial
complex?

I'm especially curious how various economic ups and downs in the military may
have influenced venture capital. I'm also interested in tracing back those ups
and downs to various presidential mandates. Seeing the whole chain from
presidential biography to consequence on the investor landscape. (Other than
that it's generally good to know the history, I think it could also act as a
source of amplified imagination about how things that's going on right now
might produce similar effects.)

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contingencies
_MITRE - The First Twenty Years - a History of the MITRE Corporation_

There used to be a lot of juicy stuff shared on various .mil(.x) domains
~1990s, that provided a view in to the apparently significant transition to
viewing the world as constantly at war, and the US and its allies' views
during the initial phase of militarization of non-military information and
communications networks and space. Probably some portion available on
archive.org. Search using domains of military research organizations.

