Last month, Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., said that as of February 1969 the top 100 defense contractors employed 2,072 retired military officers of the rank of colonel or Navy captain and above. This ls an average of more than 20 per company.
Litton was reported to have 49 — 2.5 times the average — on its staff, but this was not the highest figure by a good bit.
Top positions on the list were occupied primarily by aircraft and space-oriented companies: Lockheed Aircraft Corp. had 210 retired high-ranking military officers; Boeing Corp. had 169; McDonnell Douglas Corp. 141; General Dynamics Corp. 113 and North American Rockwell Corp. 104…
“In some cases ,” [Proxmire] said , “former officers may even negotiate contracts with their former fellow officers… In addition , there is subtle or unconscious temptation to the officer still on active duty. After all, he can see that over 2,000 of his fellow officers work for the big companies. How hard a bargain does he drive with them when he is one or two years away from retirement?”
50 years later, the Project of Government Oversight has built a new database to track the revolving door.
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