VIA used to make low power x86 processors
DoD originally required all products to be sourced by at least three companies to prevent supply chain issues. This required Intel to allow AMD and VIA to produce products based on ISA.
For me this is good indicator if someone that talks about good national security knows what they are talking about or are just spewing bullshit and playing national security theatre.
Afaik DoD wasnt the reason behind original AMD second source license, it was IBM forcing Intel on chips that went into first PC.