Capture lane

Military-Industrial Complex

The Military-Industrial Complex capture lane traces 345 verified events documenting this mechanism of institutional capture.

345 events From Dec 22, 1807 To Apr 12, 2026 Open in filter view →
Activity over time Events per year
1807 · 1 event1812 · 1 event1817 · 1 event1818 · 1 event1819 · 1 event1837 · 1 event1846 · 1 event1847 · 1 event1859 · 1 event1861 · 2 events1862 · 2 events1863 · 2 events1864 · 1 event1874 · 2 events1876 · 1 event1887 · 1 event1890 · 1 event1893 · 1 event1898 · 1 event1914 · 1 event1915 · 1 event1926 · 1 event1934 · 2 events1939 · 1 event1940 · 1 event1941 · 2 events1942 · 3 events1943 · 1 event1944 · 1 event1945 · 1 event1947 · 3 events1948 · 1 event1949 · 2 events1950 · 2 events1951 · 1 event1953 · 2 events1954 · 1 event1959 · 1 event1960 · 1 event1961 · 1 event1962 · 1 event1964 · 1 event1965 · 1 event1966 · 2 events1967 · 3 events1968 · 1 event1969 · 3 events1970 · 1 event1971 · 2 events1972 · 1 event1974 · 1 event1976 · 1 event1977 · 1 event1979 · 1 event1980 · 1 event1981 · 3 events1982 · 1 event1983 · 1 event1985 · 2 events1986 · 1 event1987 · 2 events1989 · 3 events1990 · 1 event1991 · 1 event1992 · 1 event1994 · 1 event1996 · 1 event1997 · 1 event1998 · 3 events1999 · 1 event2001 · 1 event2002 · 3 events2003 · 4 events2004 · 1 event2005 · 1 event2007 · 1 event2008 · 1 event2009 · 1 event2010 · 1 event2012 · 1 event2013 · 3 events2014 · 7 events2015 · 6 events2016 · 7 events2017 · 10 events2018 · 9 events2019 · 13 events2020 · 13 events2021 · 8 events2022 · 6 events2023 · 7 events2024 · 13 events2025 · 99 events2026 · 32 events18072026
DateEventLanesStatus
1950-08-23CIA Secretly Purchases Civil Air Transport, Creating Template for Intelligence Front Companies
Central Intelligence Agency · Claire Chennault · Whiting Willauer · Civil Air Transport · +1
confirmed
1949-08-10Louis Johnson Exonerated in B-36 Scandal Despite Convair Board Service and Contract Awards
Louis Johnson · Convair Corporation · House Armed Services Committee · Carl Vinson · +2
confirmed
1949-04-04NATO Established - 12 Nations Form Collective Defense Pact, $1.4 Billion Defense Buildup Begins
Harry S. Truman · U.S. Congress · North Atlantic Treaty Organization · Defense Department
confirmed
1948-04-03Marshall Plan Begins - $13 Billion Aid Program Benefits American Exporters and Defense Industry
George Marshall · Harry S. Truman · U.S. Congress · European Recovery Program
confirmed
1947-09-18James Forrestal Becomes First Defense Secretary, Fusing Wall Street Financial Power with Pentagon
James Forrestal · Harry Truman · U.S. Department of Defense · Dillon, Read & Co.
confirmed
1947-07-26National Security Act Establishes Permanent Warfare State and Military-Industrial Framework
Harry S. Truman · U.S. Congress · U.S. Department of Defense · Central Intelligence Agency · +1
confirmed
1947-03-12Truman Doctrine Announces $400 Million Military Aid Package - Cold War Containment Policy Begins
Harry S. Truman · U.S. Congress · George F. Kennan · Dean Acheson
confirmed
1945-08-15WWII Defense Contractors Convert to Peacetime Economy While Maintaining Pentagon Subsidies and Infrastructure
Boeing · Lockheed · General Dynamics · War Production Board · +1
confirmed
1944-07-17Port Chicago Disaster and Black Sailors Mutiny Conviction
U.S. Navy · Thurgood Marshall · NAACP · Port Chicago 50 · +1
confirmed
1943-07-01Curtiss-Wright Exposed for Supplying Defective Aircraft Engines to Military
Curtiss-Wright Corporation · Truman Committee · Harry S. Truman · Army Air Force
confirmed
1942-12-21Anaconda Wire and Cable Indicted for $6 Million Fraud Selling Defective Equipment
Anaconda Wire and Cable Company · Department of Justice · Truman Committee · Francis Biddle
confirmed
1942-04-28Renegotiation Act Enables Limited War Profit Recovery After Corporate Resistance
U.S. Congress · U.S. War Department · Navy Department · Defense contractors · +1
confirmed
1942-01-16War Production Board Establishes Corporate-Government Fusion Model
Franklin D. Roosevelt · Donald Nelson · War Production Board · Defense contractors · +1
confirmed
1941-04-17Ford Willow Run Bomber Plant Built with Taxpayer Funds, Private Profits
Ford Motor Company · Henry Ford · Charles Sorensen · U.S. War Department · +1
confirmed
1941-03-01Truman Committee Established to Investigate War Profiteering
Harry S. Truman · U.S. Senate · Defense contractors
confirmed
1940-01-01WWII Corporate Profits Soar 113% as Cost-Plus Contracts Enable Massive War Profiteering
U.S. corporations · General Motors · Steel industry · War Industries Board · +1
confirmed
1939-11-04Neutrality Act Revised to Allow Arms Sales on Cash-and-Carry Basis, Enabling Corporate War Profits
Franklin D. Roosevelt · U.S. Congress · arms manufacturers · isolationists · +2
confirmed
1934-11-20Marine General Smedley Butler Testifies to Congressional Committee About Wall Street Plot to Overthrow FDR
Smedley Butler · McCormack-Dickstein Committee · Gerald MacGuire · J.P. Morgan interests · +3
confirmed
1934-04-12Nye Committee Begins Investigation of War Profiteering and Munitions Industry "Merchants of Death"
Gerald Nye · U.S. Senate · J.P. Morgan Jr. · Pierre du Pont · +2
confirmed
1926-02-26Revenue Act of 1926 Slashes Top Tax Rate to 25%, Abolishes Gift Tax in Full Mellon Plan
Andrew Mellon · Calvin Coolidge · U.S. Congress · Republican Party
confirmed
1915-05-07Lusitania Sunk by German U-Boat with 173 Tons of Munitions Aboard: 1,200 Dead, Morgan Profiteering Exposed
RMS Lusitania · German Navy · British Government · JP Morgan & Co. · +1
confirmed
1914-08-01JP Morgan Becomes Allied War Financier: $3 Billion in Loans and Munitions Contracts, Abandons Neutrality for Profit
JP Morgan & Co. · British Government · French government · Thomas Lamont · +2
confirmed
1898-05-01Embalmed Beef Scandal - War Profiteering and McKinley Administration Negligence
Russell A. Alger · William McKinley · Armour & Co · Swift & Co · +3
confirmed
1893-01-17U.S. Marines Land in Honolulu, American Businessmen Overthrow Hawaiian Kingdom and Depose Queen Liliuokalani in Illegal Coup
Queen Liliuokalani · John L. Stevens · Committee of Safety · Sanford B. Dole · +5
confirmed
1890-12-29Wounded Knee Massacre - U.S. 7th Cavalry Kills 250+ Lakota, Primarily Women and Children, Ending Ghost Dance Movement
U.S. 7th Cavalry · Big Foot (Lakota Chief) · Sitting Bull · Lakota Sioux · +1
confirmed
1887-07-06Armed Militia Forces King Kalakaua to Sign "Bayonet Constitution," Stripping Hawaiian Sovereignty and Disenfranchising Native Hawaiians
King Kalakaua · Hawaiian League · Sanford B. Dole · Lorrin Thurston · +5
confirmed
1876-07-08Hamburg Massacre: Red Shirts Murder Black Militia to Suppress Voting
Red Shirts · Benjamin Tillman · Wade Hampton III · Matthew Butler · +1
confirmed
1874-08-30Coushatta Massacre: White League Assassinates Entire Republican Parish Government
White League · Dick Coleman · Thomas Floyd · Marshall Twitchell · +1
confirmed
1874-07-02Custer's Black Hills Expedition Violates Fort Laramie Treaty, Discovering Gold and Triggering Rush to Sioux Sacred Lands
Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer · U.S. Army · Sioux Nation · Horatio Ross (prospector) · +1
confirmed
1864-11-29Sand Creek Massacre - Colorado Militia Slaughters 150 Peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Under Protection Flag
Colonel John Chivington · Third Colorado Cavalry · Black Kettle (Cheyenne Chief) · Colorado Territory · +2
confirmed
1863-03-02Congress Passes False Claims Act Allowing Citizens to Sue War Profiteers After Contractor Fraud Crisis
Abraham Lincoln · U.S. Congress · War profiteers
confirmed
1863-01-15Treasury Department Cotton Permit System Enables Massive Corruption as Officials Trade with Enemy for Personal Profit
U.S. Treasury Department · Charles Dana · Abraham Lincoln · Salmon P. Chase · +2
confirmed
1862-05-01General Benjamin Butler's New Orleans Occupation Marked by Systematic Corruption and Cotton Trade Profiteering
Benjamin F. Butler · Andrew Butler · David G. Farragut · Abraham Lincoln
confirmed
1862-01-13Lincoln's Secretary of War Simon Cameron Resigns Amid Procurement Corruption and Contract Fraud Enabling Profiteering
Simon Cameron · Abraham Lincoln · Edwin M. Stanton · Alexander Cummings · +1
confirmed
1861-04-12Confederate Bombardment of Fort Sumter Begins Civil War and Triggers Massive War Profiteering Industry
Confederate States of America · Jefferson Davis · Robert Anderson · Abraham Lincoln · +1
confirmed
1861-01-01Civil War Contractors Defraud Government with Defective Weapons and Shoddy Goods Costing Lives and Millions
U.S. War Department · Union Army · War contractors · Shoddy millionaires
confirmed
1859-10-16John Brown's Harpers Ferry Raid Exposes Slave Power's Armed Defense of Institutional Capture
John Brown · Robert E. Lee · James Buchanan · U.S. Marines · +1
confirmed
1847-01-04Samuel Colt Rescues Failing Gun Company with Mexican War Government Contract
Samuel Colt · Samuel Walker · U.S. government · Eli Whitney Jr.
confirmed
1846-05-11Polk Deceives Congress into War Declaration with False American Blood Claims
James K. Polk · Zachary Taylor · U.S. Congress · Abraham Lincoln · +1
confirmed
1837-11-07Abolitionist Editor Elijah Lovejoy Murdered by Pro-Slavery Mob; No Prosecutions Follow
Elijah Parish Lovejoy · Pro-slavery mob · Alton, Illinois authorities · John Quincy Adams · +2
confirmed
1819-02-22Adams-Onís Treaty Acquires Florida Through Coerced Spanish Cession After Jackson's Unauthorized Invasion
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams · Spanish Minister Luis de Onís · President James Monroe · General Andrew Jackson
confirmed
1818-08-01National Road Reaches Wheeling, Demonstrating Federal Infrastructure Capability Despite Constitutional Debates
U.S. Congress · Thomas Jefferson · George Washington · Henry McKinley
confirmed
1817-11-21First Seminole War Begins as Jackson Invades Spanish Florida to Recapture Enslaved People
General Andrew Jackson · Seminole Nation · Black Seminoles · Spanish Empire · +1
confirmed
1812-06-18War of 1812 Declared, Enabling Widespread Profiteering and Contractor Fraud
President James Madison · U.S. Congress · British Empire · War profiteers
confirmed
1807-12-22Embargo Act Demonstrates Economic Warfare Against Domestic Political Opposition
President Thomas Jefferson · U.S. Congress · New England merchants · Federalist Party
confirmed