Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why are certain prominent and significant people written out of US History? [View all]OldDem2012
(3,526 posts)49. You might be interested in Smedley's role in blowing the whistle on this....
Wall Street's Plot to Seize the White House - Facing the Corporate Roots of American Fascism
QUOTES:
"In 1933, Butler was approached by men representing a clique of multi-millionaire industrialists and bankers. They hated U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) with a passion, and saw his New Deal policies as the start of a communist take-over that threatened their interests. FDR even had the temerity to announce that the U.S. would stop using its military to interfere in Latin American affairs! Wall Streets plutocrats were aghast! They had long been accustomed to wielding tremendous control over the governments economic policies, including the use of U.S. forces to protect their precious foreign investments. Because of Butlers steadfast military role in upholding U.S. business interests abroad, the plotters mistakenly thought they could recruit him to muster a super-army of veterans to use as pawns in their plan to subjugate or, if necessary, eliminate FDR.
Butler played along in order to determine who was behind the plot. He later testifying under oath before the MacCormack-Dickstein House Committee on un-American Activities. During that testimony Butler named those who were directly involved in the plot. He also identified an powerful organization that was behind the scenes coordinating and backing the plot. This organization, the American Liberty League, was comprised of some of America's wealthiest bankers, financiers and corporate executives.
However, the House Committee did not properly investigate the coup plot. In fact they helped to cover it up. The powerful fascists plotters behind the coup were never questioned, let alone arrested or charged with sedition or treason. The Committee even dropped from their report of Butler's testimony most of the names of these wealthy bankers and corporate presidents whom Butler had identified. Butler was of course outraged and he went on national radio to name the names of those behind the coup plot. A sympathetic reporter from the Philadelphia Herald, Paul Comly French was one of the only mainstream journalists to help Butler expose the plotters. John Spivak, a reporter, from the socialist magazine New Masses, interviewed Butler and helped him to put the coup plotters' names onto the public record. For the most part, the mainstream media either ignored the story or went to great lengths to ridicule General Butler.
Although Butler's patriotic efforts did thwart this fascist coup plot, the Wall Street bankers and corporate leaders who sponsored it continued to conspire behind the scenes to rid America of FDR and to smash his New Deal. Evidence of continued efforts by powerful U.S. fascists to regain control of the White House is illustrated by a 1936 statement by William Dodd, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.
Does any of that sound like it could be happening today? You bet it does!
QUOTES:
"In 1933, Butler was approached by men representing a clique of multi-millionaire industrialists and bankers. They hated U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) with a passion, and saw his New Deal policies as the start of a communist take-over that threatened their interests. FDR even had the temerity to announce that the U.S. would stop using its military to interfere in Latin American affairs! Wall Streets plutocrats were aghast! They had long been accustomed to wielding tremendous control over the governments economic policies, including the use of U.S. forces to protect their precious foreign investments. Because of Butlers steadfast military role in upholding U.S. business interests abroad, the plotters mistakenly thought they could recruit him to muster a super-army of veterans to use as pawns in their plan to subjugate or, if necessary, eliminate FDR.
Butler played along in order to determine who was behind the plot. He later testifying under oath before the MacCormack-Dickstein House Committee on un-American Activities. During that testimony Butler named those who were directly involved in the plot. He also identified an powerful organization that was behind the scenes coordinating and backing the plot. This organization, the American Liberty League, was comprised of some of America's wealthiest bankers, financiers and corporate executives.
However, the House Committee did not properly investigate the coup plot. In fact they helped to cover it up. The powerful fascists plotters behind the coup were never questioned, let alone arrested or charged with sedition or treason. The Committee even dropped from their report of Butler's testimony most of the names of these wealthy bankers and corporate presidents whom Butler had identified. Butler was of course outraged and he went on national radio to name the names of those behind the coup plot. A sympathetic reporter from the Philadelphia Herald, Paul Comly French was one of the only mainstream journalists to help Butler expose the plotters. John Spivak, a reporter, from the socialist magazine New Masses, interviewed Butler and helped him to put the coup plotters' names onto the public record. For the most part, the mainstream media either ignored the story or went to great lengths to ridicule General Butler.
Although Butler's patriotic efforts did thwart this fascist coup plot, the Wall Street bankers and corporate leaders who sponsored it continued to conspire behind the scenes to rid America of FDR and to smash his New Deal. Evidence of continued efforts by powerful U.S. fascists to regain control of the White House is illustrated by a 1936 statement by William Dodd, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.
Does any of that sound like it could be happening today? You bet it does!
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
110 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
Why are certain prominent and significant people written out of US History? [View all]
Smarmie Doofus
Mar 2013
OP
When I've subbed in history, I'm always amazed at what's glossed over.
knitter4democracy
Mar 2013
#1
I would think teaching peace-history would be more inspiring to students, too.
kentauros
Mar 2013
#35
Even politics: what if Clay, Calhoun, and Webster got as much time as the Civil War?
Recursion
Mar 2013
#73
P.P.S. - For more background on Oliver Stone's aborted Butler film project, please see:
leveymg
Mar 2013
#10
History is a discipline and the fact is that there are few who actually possess that discipline.
Cary
Mar 2013
#6
Committee report found that a number of major financiers and industrialists signed on.
leveymg
Mar 2013
#31
Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker were involved in financing Hitler, not this plot.
leveymg
Mar 2013
#61
The DuPonts and Morgan Bank interests were at the heart of the '34 plot. Bush/Walker worked at
leveymg
Mar 2013
#64
House Speaker McCormick maintained his committee's conclusion the "business plot" was real.
leveymg
Mar 2013
#20
To be fair, they didn't exactly build enormous libraries documenting their history (nt)
Nye Bevan
Mar 2013
#37
Here's some more folks and things kids should be taught about in U.S. schools:
Ken Burch
Mar 2013
#23
Wiki describes it as a "massacre" not as a shootout. The account reads more like self defense.
Smarmie Doofus
Mar 2013
#70
You skipped the part where the Wobblies shot three unarmed Legionnaires with their rifles
Recursion
Mar 2013
#71
You could use Turner as an example of what something like slavery does to the human mind.
Ken Burch
Mar 2013
#92
Louis Armstrong was integral to music in general.Without him and Bing Crosby, there was nothing.
graham4anything
Mar 2013
#28
I was also referring to actual recording history itself-see 3rd paragraph.
graham4anything
Mar 2013
#53
It does seem like some people are trying to turn the schools into little factories.
DearHeart
Mar 2013
#110
You might be interested in Smedley's role in blowing the whistle on this....
OldDem2012
Mar 2013
#49
What I noticed was the treatment of Smedley Butler in the National Museum of the Marine Corps
Nay
Mar 2013
#52
I dunno. I remember learning about Gompers, Debs, and Lewis, plus Haymarket and the Bonus army
Recursion
Mar 2013
#80
And pretty much anything that happened in large swaths of the country before the Anglo-Americans
Retrograde
Mar 2013
#68
U.S. history and actual historians have not so done. U.S. school textbooks are a different issue.
WinkyDink
Mar 2013
#69
The history I've read is quite broad and comprehensive. Guess the difference is . . .
Journeyman
Mar 2013
#100
Glaringly absent from history in the US is the way we treated Native Americans
sabrina 1
Mar 2013
#101