Forty years ago tonight, the nation’s 34th president closed out his two terms in office with a farewell address so pointed, yet so full of wistful optimism, that even his harshest critics the next morning must have scratched their heads and pondered, “Was that really Ike on the radio last night?”

Ike, of course, was Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 70-year-old chief executive whose many talents did not include delivering a succinct, coherent speech. So imagine America’s surprise when the former Army general spoke clearly about his hopes for world peace, his fear of electronic technology and the dubious legacy of strife left to his country’s youngest citizens.

“We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage,” he said on Jan. 17, 1961. “We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.”

Eisenhower spoke of the Cold War menace, and of his desire that “… in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.”

The Bangor Daily News highlighted Ike’s remarks in a Page One story by The Associated Press, which quoted tidbits known today as “sound bites.”

The juiciest bite was the old warrior’s caveat that, for the first time in history, profiteers were cashing in on the spoils of war:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

Speaking of the technological revolution, Ike warned, “… for every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electric computers.” (Yes, computers were up and running in 1961. No laptops, though.)

Eisenhower failed to speak ill of the Democrats, who controlled Congress during six of his eight years in office, and whose presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy, beat Ike’s two-term vice president, Richard M. Nixon, in 1960.

Bill Clinton will deliver his valedictory Thursday night. He would do well to read Ike’s humble remarks before bidding farewell.