The Business Plot To Overthrow FDR, 1933-34: Gen. Smedley Butler - Not A 'Hoax'

[appalachiablue]

- By all accounts, General Smedley Butler was a national hero. So when he told Congress that a group of businessmen were perilously close to overthrowing the US government, lawmakers took him seriously.

'Wealthy bankers & businessmen plotted to overthrow FDR. A retired general foiled it.', Wash Post, 1/13/21.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/13/fdr-roosevelt-coup-business-plot/

The consternation had been growing in the months between Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election and his inauguration, but his elimination of the gold standard in April 1933 infuriated some of the country’s wealthiest men. Titans of banking and business worried that if U.S. currency wasn’t backed by gold, inflation could skyrocket and make their millions worthless. Why, they could end up as poor as most everyone else was during the Great Depression.

So, according to the sworn congressional testimony of a retired general, they decided to overthrow the government and install a dictator who was more business friendly. After all, they reasoned, that had been working well in Italy. How close this fascist cabal got, and who exactly was in on it, are still subjects of historical debate. But as the dust settles after the pro-Trump attack on the U.S. Capitol, and as it becomes clearer how close lawmakers came to catastrophe, the similarities to the Business Plot are hard to ignore.

“The nation has never been at a potential brink as it was then up until, I think, now,” said Sally Denton, author of the book “The Plots against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right.” Smedley D. Butler was a highly decorated Marine Corps general who had received the Medal of Honor twice. He was beloved by his men before his retirement, and more so afterward when he spoke in support of the Bonus Army’s fight for early bonus payments for World War I service.

“He was wildly popular and was an outspoken critic of fascism and Mussolini at a time when there was really an impulse toward that throughout the world, including in the United States,” Denton said. Given his opposition to fascism, Butler might not have seemed like a good fit for the job of coup leader, but his support from veterans was more important to the Wall Street plotters. At the time, there were many more veterans than active-duty service members; if someone could summon them as a force of 500,000 to march on Washington, the government could fall without a shot being fired...
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- American Liberty League, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Liberty_League

[appalachiablue]

3. Smedley's, FDR, Francis Perkins, Eleanor R., more

[hlthe2b]

2. Sort of sad that you have to point out that this was no hoax...

so few know even the most recent history, much less that of decades or centuries in the past it seems.

I only wish we could identify today's Gen. Smedley Butler.

[appalachiablue]

4. At the time, some tried to dis it as a hoax. I have

a degree in history but never knew of this travesty until 12 years ago. My parents spoke of the Depression, FDR and history but not this, buried in the news.

[hlthe2b]

6. He was a hero to my WWII-serving father and uncles, so I heard his name even in childhood.

My grandfather met him in the 1930s.

[appalachiablue]

7. That's great your grandfather met Gen. Butler. My mom's

dad was a WWI vet and my dad WWII. They must have known of Butler.

[TheRealNorth]

5. I have heard it dismissed as just "idle chatter" that was never seriously pursued....

My guess is Butler smoked the traitors out before it could be put into action. Unfortunately, nothing on their treason could be proven.

[appalachiablue]

8. And Butler was even more dissed when his book,

War Is A Racket came out in 1936. Trash rumors of nervous breakdown. There are those who believe that FDR held onto the conspirators names and info. in case of future issues.

[empedocles]

12. 'Idle chatter', and similiar dismissive phrases, were the standard republican line,

Last edited Mon Sep 13, 2021, 07:10 PM - Edit history (1)

across the nation!

Newspapers almost everywhere, followed that dismissive, not hardly worth mentioning, line.

[Edit] 'the news media dismissed the plot, with New York Times editorial characterizing it as a ''gigantic hoax''.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

[brush]

9. It was no hoax. The American Liberty League, the ones behind the coup attempt...

Last edited Mon Sep 13, 2021, 04:49 PM - Edit history (2)

was composed of many prominent Americans whose family names included Bush (Prescott), duPont, Sloan (GM) Hal Roach of Hollywood fame, and others.

Gen. Butler pretended to go along with them and word got to FDR who threatened to exposed them publicly to help get his New Deal programs passed.

Gen. Butler, the author of "War is a Racket" was certainly a hero.

[appalachiablue]

10. I added info about the Liberty League above, thanks.

[brush]

11. Great. Your post is important considering Jan. 6, as many don't know about...

that previous coup attempt.

[2Gingersnaps]

13. THIS is the history you will never get

from any Texas middle and high school history book. Senator Christopher Dodd's father was Ambassador to Germany at the time, he caught wind of the conspiracy in Germany. FDR also had issues with Fred Koch, father of Charles and David Koch. Their fortune was built on building oil refineries for Stalin and Hitler. The four Koch sons were raised by a Nanny who was a hard core Nazi sympathizer. Fred Koch said that the only "strong nations in the world were Germany, Italy, and Japan." Fred Koch was also one of the 11 founding members of the John Birch Society. Not surprising that they have pored money into undermining our Constitutional Republic.

[appalachiablue]

14. Fascists United! I didn't know FDR tangled

with Fred Koch, or that the sons had a Nazi nanny. Awful group, two brothers tried to blackmail their gay sibling to get his stock shares and investments. Low as they go.