This is a profound speech and a profound moment in history. Eisenhower was an anchor of the moderate Republican Party of the past, and a horrified observer of the growing cancer of the Cold War and extremism within his party (McCarthy, Nixon, etc.). Listen to this speech if you want to remember what the Republican Party once stood for. It is a voice from yesterday warning us of what has now come to pass. This is the speech that warned Americans of the "military industrial complex" and its corrupting influence on the "scientific technological elite", and of a materialism born of our prosperity that would "plunder the precious resources of tomorrow".

Listen to this speech alongside Kennedy's inaugural address a few days later. That speech asks Americans to serve a cause of freedom greater than themselves ("ask not what you can do for your country"). Kennedy carried the torch of the strong and noble Democratic Party of FDR and Truman. But his reckless resolve ("pay any price, bear any burden") also carries the seeds of the destruction of his party in Vietnam a few years later.

Listen to these speeches to understand today's W: lately a pretender to the spirit of Kennedy, Eisenhower's fear made flesh, unwilling or unable to learn from either their wisdom or their mistakes.

In this speech, DDE gives his farewell speech, and it's pretty good. He doesnt really gloat over his career that much, rather tells of what needs to be done. He seems to stumble a lot here fro some odd reason (which is not evident in his other speeches). He wishes for an everlasting peace, something of a challenge to his successor, Kennedy will try vainly to achieve.