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GE had major investments around the
world, which they expected the Pentagon to protect. It also was, and is,
a charter member of the military-industrial complex.
A member in good standing, I might add!
GE is the country's third-largest military contractor, raking in
billions of dollars every year. It produces parts for every nuclear
weapon in the U.S. arsenal, makes jet engines for military aircraft, and
creates all kinds of profitable electronic gadgets for the Pentagon.
It's also the company that secretly released millions of curies of
deadly radiation from the Hanford nuclear weapons facility in Washington
state and produced faulty nuclear power plants that dot the U.S.
countryside.
[GE spokesperson:] "We bring good things to life!"
From Wilson's time, GE has been very concerned with making use of the
media. In 1954 it hired a floundering actor named Ronald Reagan to be
its corporate spokesman. It furnished Ron and Nancy with an all-electric
house, and Ron with his own TV show called "GE Theater."
It also furnished Reagan with "The Speech," GE's political message for
America, and sent him around the country to deliver it. He's been
delivering variations of "The Speech" ever since. [126]
Meanwhile, GE was busy buying up TV and radio stations across the
country.
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