The Fascist 'Business Plot' To Replace FDR With A Dictator, 1933: Smedley Butler, Great Depression

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Thu May 21, 2020, 06:50 PM - Edit history (7)

Wall Street Crash of 1929; Great Depression (1929-1940); Bonus Army March on Washington in 1932.

The Business Plot conspiracy of 1933 was planned by leading American industrialists and bankers who opposed newly-elected President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal; some viewed him as a Communist or socialist.

The financiers political coup d'état intended to install a new, military-style regime headed by the popular retired Marine officer, Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler who would be viewed as a 'strongman' like Mussolini. To support Butler there would be a 'US veterans army' modeled on fascist, European paramilitary organizations that were used as anti- socialist strike breakers in the 1920s and 1930s- 'blackshirts' in Mussolini's Italy and 'brownshirts' in Hitler's Nazi Germany. The plot was also backed by the American Liberty League, a conservative, anti-government rightwing group of prominent business leaders and politicians who opposed the New Deal, progressive taxes and FDR's administration.



- Smedley Butler's radio speech on the Business Plot after the congressional investigation, 1935.

(NPR). "It was a dangerous time in America: The economy was staggering, unemployment was rampant and a banking crisis threatened the entire monetary system...during the tense months between FDR's election in November and his inauguration in March 1933, democracy hung in the balance."

"There was a lot at play. It could have gone very different directions." Though it's hard for us to imagine today, she says fascism, communism, even Naziism seemed like possible solutions to the country's ills. "There were suggestions that capitalism was not working, that democracy was not working," she says. Some people even called for a dictator to pull America out of the Great Depression."...

- NPR, When Bankers Plotted To Overthrow FDR,
https://www.npr.org/2012/02/12/145472726/when-the-bankers-plotted-to-overthrow-fdr
- Business Plot Of Bankers To Overthrow FDR: Prescott Bush, Others,
https://timeline.com/business-plot-overthrow-fdr-9a59a012c32a?gi=5a31b4b8abd0
- The Bonus Army of WWI Veterans In Washington DC In 1932,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army

- Smedley D. Butler, https://spartacus-educational.com/USAbutlerSD.htm
- The American Liberty League of 1934 and the Tea Party of 2009,
https://rooseveltinstitute.org/tea-party-movement-successor-american-liberty-league/
- Croix-de-Feu, French nationalist organization of WWI veterans, est. 1927
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croix-de-Feu

[cayugafalls]

1. Prescott Bush and other bankers bankrolled the venture...

Yet somehow it all got swept under the rug and they still became a upstanding political family...

It's been a long time coming...they will not go quietly into the good night.

[appalachiablue]

2. Industrialists and financiers in Germany, Italy, France

and the UK were equally worried about bolshevism and rising unrest from unemployment during the early years of the Great Depression. I was just reading about the French Croix-de-feu far right nationalist veterans group funded by Coty and other corporations. It was active during the interwar period.

[cayugafalls]

4. Thank you for that, I will read up on them!

[BComplex]

11. And now you see what Bill Barr is doing to the justice department; then he says "the victors write

history". Yep! If the nazi sympathizers had taken over during FDR's presidency, they would have written the history of it much differently than this video shows.

[cayugafalls]

3. Here is a link to a really good article by Harpers written in 2007...

1934: The Plot Against America

https://harpers.org/2007/07/1934-the-plot-against-america/

[appalachiablue]

5. Thanks, another from 2004 on the exposure of

Prescott Bush. There's also Fritz Thyssen, and all the other German industrialists that backed Hitler.

Fascism was fast growing all over in Europe after the Russian Revolution, the Wall St. Crash of 1929 and the start of the Depression. Like others, Charlie Chaplin knew it. In 1931, the actor made an 18-month trip to Europe and was alarmed by the rise of nationalism he saw there, also the growth of automation which he depicted in his 1936 classic film, 'Modern Times.'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

https://democraticunderground.com/103429686

[appalachiablue]

8. Actor Charlie Chaplin was concerned with unemployment

rise after the Wall Street Crash of Oct. 1929 and the simultaneous growth of machine automation which he depicted in his 1936 classic film, 'Modern Times.' In 1931, Chaplin left Hollywood to take an 18- month trip to Europe where the rise of unemployment, nationalism, fascism and automation disturbed him.

- Filming 'Modern Times' (1936), Charlie Chaplin.
https://www.charliechaplin.com/en/articles/6-Filming-Modern-Times

Chaplin was acutely preoccupied with the social and economic problems of this new age. In 1931 and 1932 he had left Hollywood behind, to embark on an 18-month world tour. In Europe, he had been disturbed to see the rise of nationalism and the social effects of the Depression, of unemployment and of automation. He read books on economic theory; and devised his own Economic Solution, an intelligent exercise in utopian idealism, based on a more equitable distribution not just of wealth but of work. In 1931 he told a newspaper interviewer :

“Unemployment is the vital question . . . Machinery should benefit mankind. It should not spell tragedy and throw it out of work.”...(con't)



- Actor Charlie Chaplin in Austria surrounded by a crowd in 1931. Chaplin toured Europe for a year and a half, 1931-32 and was alarmed by the atmosphere of unemployment, nationalism and automation he saw there.

(Trailer). Chaplin's 1936 classic film on the tragedy of life and love, poverty and automation during the height of the Great Depression in 1936. Accompanied by the famous song 'Smile' which Chaplin wrote. *Note the 'Hooverville' shacks along the waterfront in the film.

[BComplex]

6. This is exactly what's happening now, except NOW they have Fox "news", QAnon, and trump in

the oval office.

It is really worrying about this next election.

This thread needs to make it to the top of the chart, and needs to be reviewed by all DUers, and hopefully, spread around the USA during our time at home.

[cayugafalls]

7. You are correct. It needs more exposure.

The Corporate Oligarchs have never really been held accountable and have simply gained more power. Their grip on the government is quite firm and we need to fight it as much as possible.

QAnon, OAN, Fox News are merely propaganda outlets for the 1%. Trump may not even be one of the 1%, at least not in true wealth, but they have latched onto his platform of hate and division and are going full steam ahead with their plans to dismantle the protections and advances made over the last 60 years.

[BComplex]

10. It needs more than recs. I wish everyone would take the time to watch this.

The bush crime family was part of the nazi-loving group that was trying to defeat democracy back then.

[appalachiablue]

12. Smedley Butler, The Fascist Plot: Rise of Global Corp. Power

Last edited Thu May 21, 2020, 08:49 PM - Edit history (1)

The prominent conservative backers of the Business Plot were not revealed at the time by the congressional investigation of 1934.

Businesses and individuals involved in the conspiracy and the Liberty League group include: the Du Pont family, leaders of General Motors and General Foods, Chase National Bank, S.B. Colgate, Standard Oil, Alfred P. Sloan, banker Prescott Bush, Sewell Avery, Robert Sterling Clark and politician Al Smith (D) of New York.