In 1935, he wrote a short book titled War Is a Racket, in which he described and criticized the workings of the United States in its foreign actions and wars, indicating that many were inspired by the imperial aspirations of American corporations (for example, wars in Central America that benefitted American sugar and fruit interests). 70)īutler became a popular activist, speaking at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists, and church groups in the 1930s. Nevertheless, as Usdin writes:Īlthough the Liberty League/KKK alliance was not consummated, the fact that some of the wealthiest men in America considered working with thugs who celebrated the lynching and terrorizing of innocent men, women, and children provides insight into their character and lends credence to the notion that the League backed the Business Plot.” (p. Some of those same individuals then tried to merge their group with the Ku Klux Klan, but the merger never took place. Moreover, no prosecutions or further investigations followed. A final report by a special House of Representatives Committee confirmed some of what Butler said, but to Butler’s astonishment, did not name any names, even though (or because) the individuals involved were some of the most powerful in the country. There were denials all around of course and the media ridiculed the allegations. He then went to a journalist friend, Paul Comly French, who broke the story on Novemof what became known as “The Business Plot.”Ĭongress began an investigation. Smedley Butler, a staunch patriot in spite of his criticisms, decided to play along with the plotters in order to gather evidence to thwart their schemes. The men who ran US Steel, General Motors, the Chase Manhattan and JP Mortan banks, Standard Oil, and, until FDR’s presidential nomination, the Democratic Party joined the du Pont brothers and Raskob in a crusade against what they viewed as populist tyranny.” (p. They formed an organization calling themselves the American Liberty League, which had the mission of “annihilating the imported, autocratic, Asiatic Socialist party of Karl Marx and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” (Usdin, p. Most of them were opposed to greater taxation of their wealth, and feared that FDR’s “socialist” tendencies would cause them to have to part with some of their money. Raskob and other representatives of the wealthiest men in America. The men behind the effort included wealthy scion Pierre du Pont the former treasurer of General Motors, John J. They saw Butler as a man who could organize the soldiers necessary to effect the coup. It is perhaps for this reason that he was approached by a group of plotters who wanted to mount a coup against President Franklin Roosevelt. In 1933 he toured the country giving speeches in which he denounced the Economy Act of 1933, called on veterans to organize politically to win their benefits, and condemned the FDR administration for its ties to big business. 66)īutler was drummed out of the Marines in October 1931 after causing a diplomatic incident by falsely accusing Benito Mussolini of running down and killing a child. Summing up his career in an August 1933 speech speech to the nation’s largest veterans organization, the American Legion, Butler said he’d been a ‘high-class muscle man for Big Business.’ He recounted that he’d ‘helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of the Brown Brothers,’ had helped make Mexico ‘safe for American oil interests,’ and had flexed military muscle to help American business interest in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba: ‘I helped the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.’” (Usdin, p. He came to believe that America’s muscular foreign policy benefited big business, hurt the people who found themselves on the wrong side of Yankee bayonets, and did nothing for regular Americans. As Steven Usdin reports of Butler in his book Bureau of Spies:

However, his experiences – especially in Central America, led him to become an outspoken critic of U.S. During his time in active service, Butler commanded Marines from China to the Philippines, to Central America.

General smedley butler coup