Short answers, pulled from the story.
The guns versus butter model describes a macroeconomic relationship where a nation must choose between spending finite resources on defense or civilian production. Points along the curve represent sustainable combinations, while points inside the curve indicate unused resources.
The concept originated from decisions to expand munitions before the United States entered World War I. The National Defense Act of 1916 directed the president to select sites for nitrate production, and Wilson selected Muscle Shoals, Alabama in September 1917.
Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels stated the concept in a speech on the 17th of January 1936. Hermann Göring also referenced the same idea in a speech during the summer of that year.
Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs in the 1960s faced strains from the Vietnam War and Cold War arms race. These conflicts hampered welfare expansion because increased military expenditure reduced available resources for social goods like schools and hospitals.
In his Chance For Peace speech in 1953, Eisenhower noted that one modern heavy bomber could build a school in more than 30 cities or two electric power plants serving towns of 60,000 population. He also stated that a single destroyer could provide new homes for over 8,000 people.