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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/11/trump-fdr-roosevelt-coup-attempt-1930s. . .
So, when retired US Marine Corps Maj Gen Smedley Darlington Butler claimed he was recruited by a group of Wall Street financiers to lead a fascist coup against FDR and the US government in the summer of 1933, Washington took him seriously. Butler, a Quaker, and first world war hero dubbed the Maverick Marine, was a soldiers soldier who was idolized by veterans which represented a huge and powerful voting bloc in America. Famous for his daring exploits in China and Central America, Butlers reputation was impeccable. He got rousing ovations when he claimed that during his 33 years in the marines: I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and for bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.
Butler later testified before Congress that a bond-broker and American Legion member named Gerald MacGuire approached him with the plan. MacGuire told him the coup was backed by a group called the American Liberty League, a group of business leaders which formed in response to FDRs victory, and whose mission it was to teach government the necessity of respect for the rights of persons and property. Members included JP Morgan, Jr, Irénée du Pont, Robert Sterling Clark of the Singer sewing machine fortune, and the chief executives of General Motors, Birds Eye and General Foods.
The putsch called for him to lead a massive army of veterans funded by $30m from Wall Street titans and with weapons supplied by Remington Arms to march on Washington, oust Roosevelt and the entire line of succession, and establish a fascist dictatorship backed by a private army of 500,000 former soldiers.
As MacGuire laid it out to Butler, the coup was instigated after FDR eliminated the gold standard in April 1933, which threatened the countrys wealthiest men who thought if American currency wasnt backed by gold, rising inflation would diminish their fortunes. He claimed the coup was sponsored by a group who controlled $40bn in assets about $800bn today and who had $300m available to support the coup and pay the veterans. The plotters had men, guns and money the three elements that make for successful wars and revolutions. Butler referred to them as the royal family of financiers that had controlled the American Legion since its formation in 1919. He felt the Legion was a militaristic political force, notorious for its antisemitism and reactionary policies against labor unions and civil rights, that manipulated veterans.
The planned coup was thwarted when Butler reported it to J Edgar Hoover at the FBI, who reported it to FDR. How seriously the Wall Street putsch endangered the Roosevelt presidency remains unknown, with the national press at the time mocking it as a gigantic hoax and historians like Arthur M Schlesinger Jr surmising the gap between contemplation and execution was considerable and that democracy was not in real danger. Still, there is much evidence that the nations wealthiest men Republicans and Democrats alike were so threatened by FDRs policies that they conspired with antigovernment paramilitarism to stage a coup.
So, when retired US Marine Corps Maj Gen Smedley Darlington Butler claimed he was recruited by a group of Wall Street financiers to lead a fascist coup against FDR and the US government in the summer of 1933, Washington took him seriously. Butler, a Quaker, and first world war hero dubbed the Maverick Marine, was a soldiers soldier who was idolized by veterans which represented a huge and powerful voting bloc in America. Famous for his daring exploits in China and Central America, Butlers reputation was impeccable. He got rousing ovations when he claimed that during his 33 years in the marines: I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and for bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.
Butler later testified before Congress that a bond-broker and American Legion member named Gerald MacGuire approached him with the plan. MacGuire told him the coup was backed by a group called the American Liberty League, a group of business leaders which formed in response to FDRs victory, and whose mission it was to teach government the necessity of respect for the rights of persons and property. Members included JP Morgan, Jr, Irénée du Pont, Robert Sterling Clark of the Singer sewing machine fortune, and the chief executives of General Motors, Birds Eye and General Foods.
The putsch called for him to lead a massive army of veterans funded by $30m from Wall Street titans and with weapons supplied by Remington Arms to march on Washington, oust Roosevelt and the entire line of succession, and establish a fascist dictatorship backed by a private army of 500,000 former soldiers.
As MacGuire laid it out to Butler, the coup was instigated after FDR eliminated the gold standard in April 1933, which threatened the countrys wealthiest men who thought if American currency wasnt backed by gold, rising inflation would diminish their fortunes. He claimed the coup was sponsored by a group who controlled $40bn in assets about $800bn today and who had $300m available to support the coup and pay the veterans. The plotters had men, guns and money the three elements that make for successful wars and revolutions. Butler referred to them as the royal family of financiers that had controlled the American Legion since its formation in 1919. He felt the Legion was a militaristic political force, notorious for its antisemitism and reactionary policies against labor unions and civil rights, that manipulated veterans.
The planned coup was thwarted when Butler reported it to J Edgar Hoover at the FBI, who reported it to FDR. How seriously the Wall Street putsch endangered the Roosevelt presidency remains unknown, with the national press at the time mocking it as a gigantic hoax and historians like Arthur M Schlesinger Jr surmising the gap between contemplation and execution was considerable and that democracy was not in real danger. Still, there is much evidence that the nations wealthiest men Republicans and Democrats alike were so threatened by FDRs policies that they conspired with antigovernment paramilitarism to stage a coup.
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Why is so little known about the 1930s coup attempt against FDR? (Original Post)
CousinIT
Jan 2022
OP
Media today firmly under control by rich descendants of the rich traitors from '33.
Kid Berwyn
Jan 2022
#6
Freddie
(9,267 posts)1. One of the organizers was Prescott Bush
GWBs grandfather.
electric_blue68
(14,911 posts)2. Oh, didn't know that! ...
I did learn about Smedley Butler from Thom Harttman when he was on Air America.
brush
(53,787 posts)3. And Alfred Sloan, head of GM, and the DuPonts also.
WhiteTara
(29,718 posts)9. Prescott also funded Hitler.
Boomerproud
(7,955 posts)5. It doesn't fit the narrative of benign capitalism.
Kid Berwyn
(14,909 posts)6. Media today firmly under control by rich descendants of the rich traitors from '33.
Background
BBC broadcast a good summary of the Coup Against FDR...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007tbs0
Muckrock also rocks
https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/aug/29/smedley-butler-fbi/
More data
THE BUSINESS PLOT TO OVERTHROW ROOSEVELT
In the summer of 1933, shortly after Roosevelt's "First 100 Days," America's richest businessmen were in a panic. It was clear that Roosevelt intended to conduct a massive redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. Roosevelt had to be stopped at all costs.
The answer was a military coup. It was to be secretly financed and organized by leading officers of the Morgan and Du Pont empires. This included some of America's richest and most famous names of the time:
Irenee Du Pont - Right-wing chemical industrialist and founder of the American Liberty League, the organization assigned to execute the plot.
Grayson Murphy - Director of Goodyear, Bethlehem Steel and a group of J.P. Morgan banks.
William Doyle - Former state commander of the American Legion and a central plotter of the coup.
John Davis - Former Democratic presidential candidate and a senior attorney for J.P. Morgan.
Al Smith - Roosevelt's bitter political foe from New York. Smith was a former governor of New York and a codirector of the American Liberty League.
John J. Raskob - A high-ranking Du Pont officer and a former chairman of the Democratic Party. In later decades, Raskob would become a "Knight of Malta," a Roman Catholic Religious Order with a high percentage of CIA spies, including CIA Directors William Casey, William Colby and John McCone.
Robert Clark - One of Wall Street's richest bankers and stockbrokers.
Gerald MacGuire - Bond salesman for Clark, and a former commander of the Connecticut American Legion. MacGuire was the key recruiter to General Butler.
The plotters attempted to recruit General Smedley Butler to lead the coup. They selected him because he was a war hero who was popular with the troops. The plotters felt his good reputation was important to make the troops feel confident that they were doing the right thing by overthrowing a democratically elected president. However, this was a mistake: Butler was popular with the troops because he identified with them. That is, he was a man of the people, not the elite. When the plotters approached General Butler with their proposal to lead the coup, he pretended to go along with the plan at first, secretly deciding to betray it to Congress at the right moment.
What the businessmen proposed was dramatic: they wanted General Butler to deliver an ultimatum to Roosevelt. Roosevelt would pretend to become sick and incapacitated from his polio, and allow a newly created cabinet officer, a "Secretary of General Affairs," to run things in his stead. The secretary, of course, would be carrying out the orders of Wall Street. If Roosevelt refused, then General Butler would force him out with an army of 500,000 war veterans from the American Legion. But MacGuire assured Butler the cover story would work:
"You know the American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign that the President's health is failing. Everyone can tell that by looking at him, and the dumb American people will fall for it in a second "
The businessmen also promised that money was no object: Clark told Butler that he would spend half his $60 million fortune to save the other half.
Continues
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Coup.htm
The rich think they own the planet and all that is on, in, around, and near it and to them that includes the news, history and governments.
MiniMe
(21,717 posts)7. Is Smedley Butler tRumps's new name?
brush
(53,787 posts)10. Just the opposite. Butler was a hero on the side of democracy...
not fascism.
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)8. Thanks, I learned about this many years ago but it's good to be reminded! nt