SMEDLEY BUTLER
(1881-1940)

U.S. Marine commander

Twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, Gen. Butler was approached by representatives of the Morgan Bank who offered to finance him to establish a dictatorship of the United States to replace the Roosevelt government in 1932. He refused and went to the press. A Congressional investigation was eventually suppressed. See Jules Archer, The Plot to Seize the White House for a recent, documented version of this well-publicised (in 1932) event.

I spent 33 years (in the Marines) . . . most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. . .

I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City (Bank) boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. . . .

In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested . . . I had . . . a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions.... I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three city districts. The Marines operated on three continents.

The World Tomorrow, October, 1931;
N.Y. Times, August 21, 1931

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You know very well that it (the American Legion) is nothing but a strike-breaking outfit used by capital for that purpose, and that is the reason we have all those big clubhouses and that is the reason I pulled out of it. They have been using the dumb soldiers to break strikes.
Do you think it could be hard to buy the American Legion for un- American activities? You know, the average veteran thinks the Legion is a patriotic organization to perpetuate the memories of the last war, an organization to promote peace, to take care of the wounded and to keep green the graves of those who gave their lives.

But is the American Legion that? No sir, not while it is controlled by the bankers. For years the bankers, by buying big club houses for various posts, by financing its beginning, and otherwise, have tried to make a strikebreaking organization of the Legion. The groups--the so-called Royal Family of the Legion--which have picked its officers for years, aren't interested in patriotism, in peace, in wounded veterans, in those who gave their lives...No, they are interested only in using the veterans, through their officers.

War is a racket. ...

War, like any other racket, pays high dividends to the very few. But what does it profit the masses?...The cost of operations is always transferred to the people who do not profit. ...

But there is a way to stop this racket. It cannot be smashed by disarmament conferences, by peace parleys at Geneva, by resolutions of well-meaning but impractical groups. It can be effectively smashed only by taking the profit out of war.

The only way to stop it is by conscription of capital before conscription of the nation's manhood. ...

Let the officers and directors of our armament factories, our gun builders and munitions makers and shipbuilders all be conscripted--to get $30 a month, the same wage paid to the lads in the trenches. Give capital thirty days to think it over and you will learn by that time there will be no war. That will stop the racket--that, and nothing else.

To his great credit, General Butler turned down an offer for the dictatorship of the U.S., then went public with the information about the offer.

MORE INFO: http://www.shss.montclair.edu./english/furr/butler1.html

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