I first read about the threat of peace in an old issue of I.F. Stone’s Weekly, the newsletter written by one of the most radical journalists ever to live in Washington, D.C.
I.F. Stone, also known as Izzy, is no longer alive, but for many years he paid close attention to Washington legislators, read their bills, attended their hearings and focused on important details that most other reporters overlooked. Assessing Stone’s journalism, Booklist said that “he covered events so incisively that subsequent historians are still ‘discovering’ things that he reported first.”
Reading a collection of Stone’s columns, I “discovered” that peace could have threatened to destroy the American economy in 1957. Today, peace may have less of a chance to disrupt the military-industrial complex. Thanks to Donald Trump’s war on Iran, weapons manufacturers are thriving, as are high-tech Pentagon contractors like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Google and Amazon have not recently been threatened by peace.
The threat of peace came to Stone in a series of articles titled “Our War Economy.” Izzy’s source told him that early in the 1950s, “if he were Joe Stalin and wanted to wreck the economy of the United States, he would declare five years of peace, because the loss of military spending would create a major depression.”
It is difficult to imagine—as Stone’s source did in 1957—a cut in military spending or layoffs of high-tech engineers due to an outbreak of peace this year. Donald Trump is asking Congress for a Pentagon budget of $1.5 trillion, with $200 billion more in Iran war funds just added to his request.
But America’s wartime industry is still vulnerable. I know it’s not an imminent threat, but if, for example, Vladimir Putin suddenly announced that Russia is withdrawing all its troops from the Ukraine front, unilaterally dismantling its nuclear weapons, and giving its citizens a peace dividend, all within five years, and if Iran then said it is giving up all nuclear weapons too (although it never had any), their declarations could begin to make America’s military spending wasteful.
Our huge military budget could look even more unnecessary if instead of threatening Taiwan or fighting an oil war, Xi Jinping announced Beijing needs no more oil from Iran or Venezuela, as all its cars soon will be electric. “Red” China is turning green, he might add, as the country’s engineers construct thousands of wind turbines and solar-energy farms.
War-weary Israelis could urge Netanyahu to obey the Sixth Commandment, not kill any more, and demand that all IDF soldiers leave Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and Syria alone, and recognize a free Palestine.
Rebels in assorted African and Middle Eastern locations would announce a permanent ceasefire. Video game makers around the world might voluntarily stop selling programs with gunfire in them.
Gavin Newsom could secure some of the limelight by announcing that “Give Peace a Chance” will be his presidential theme song, “although,” he adds, “I’m not opposed to fighting climate change.”
With his approval rating down to 5 percent, Donald Trump anticipates his third impeachment and panics. He asks his cabinet: “Where am I going to send all my jets and aircraft carriers and Marines if there’s no more war? We haven’t even finished building those fantastic, huge new Trump class battleships. Congress will never give me a $1.5 trillion war budget with the world turning to peace!”
All the President’s Men see peace is coming, and quietly wonder if Trump can pardon himself for war crimes.
“The public wants to cut the military budget to shreds (but non-violently),” admits the treasury secretary.
“At least there’ll be no more waste and fraud in the military, if there’s no more military,” Elon Musk posts on X, although he’s no longer heading the Department of Government Efficiency, and all his Pentagon contracts will be cancelled.
Before the president’s emergency meeting with his cabinet ends, a White House intern, daughter of a congressman from Texas, gets a nod by the president after she raises her hand.
“I don’t suppose you could redirect the surplus war funds to affordable housing, healthcare, education, and green energy? Maybe increase the funds by getting a few hundred billionaires to pay their taxes?” she asks, “Zohran Mamdani would do it.”
The president yells “that’s Communism,” sends the intern back to Texas, and blames everything on Mamdani, who is consequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Joel Schechter has written several books on satire.
