by DrDebugDU » Sun Jul 17, 2005 8:28 pm
Dbeach:<br>> Maj.Gen..Smedley Darlington Butler<br><br>To a great hero.<br><br>A little known fact<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Attempted Coup Against Franklin D. Roosevelt</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr><br>The Business Plot or the The Plot Against FDR was a conspiracy against President Franklin D. Roosevelt by a group of millionaire businessmen, led by the Du Pont and J. P. Morgan empires. Alarmed by the President's plan to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, they plotted to overthrow Roosevelt with a military coup and install a fascist government. The businessmen tried to recruit General Smedley Butler, promising him an army of 500,000, unlimited financial backing and generous media spin control. The plot was foiled when Butler reported it to Congress.<br><br>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.<br><br>The answer was a military coup. It was to be secretly financed and organized by leading officers of the Morgan and Du Pont empires.<br><br>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.<br><br>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:<br><br>"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…"<br><br>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.<br><br>And what type of government would replace Roosevelt's New Deal? MacGuire was perfectly candid to Paul French, a reporter friend of General Butler's:<br><br>"We need a fascist government in this country… to save the nation from the communists who want to tear it down and wreck all that we have built in America. The only men who have the patriotism to do it are the soldiers, and Smedley Butler is the ideal leader. He could organize a million men overnight."<br><br>Indeed, it turns out that MacGuire travelled to Italy to study Mussolini's fascist state, and came away mightily impressed. He wrote glowing reports back to his boss, Robert Clark, suggesting that they implement the same thing.<br><br>If this sounds too fantastic to believe, we should remember that by 1933, the crimes of fascism were still mostly in the future, and its dangers were largely unknown, even to its supporters. But in the early days, many businessmen openly admired Mussolini because he had used a strong hand to deal with labor unions, put out social unrest, and get the economy working again, if only at the point of a gun. Americans today would be appalled to learn of the many famous millionaires back then who initially admired Hitler and Mussolini: Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, John and Allen Dulles (who, besides being millionaires, would later become Eisenhower's Secretary of State and CIA Director, respectively), and, of course, everyone on the above list. They disavowed Hitler and Mussolini only after their atrocities grew to indefensible levels.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Breakdown</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>The plot fell apart when Smedley Butler went public. The general revealed the details of the coup before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, which would later become the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee. (In the 50s, this committee would destroy the lives of hundreds of innocent Americans with its communist witch hunts.) The Committee heard the testimony of Butler and French, but failed to call in any of the coup plotters for questioning, other than MacGuire. In fact, the Committee whitewashed the public version of its final report, deleting the names of powerful businessmen whose reputations they sought to protect. The most likely reason for this response is that Wall Street had undue influence in Congress also. Even more alarming, the elite-controlled media failed to pick up on the story, and even today the incident remains little known. The elite managed to spin the story as nothing more than the rumors and hearsay of Butler and French, even though Butler was a Quaker of unimpeachable honesty and integrity. Butler, appalled by the cover- up, went on national radio to denounce it, but with little success.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Vindication</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Butler was not vindicated until 1967</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, when journalist John Spivak uncovered the Committee's internal, secret report. It clearly confirmed Butler's story:<br><br>In the last few weeks of the committee's life it received evidence showing that certain persons had attempted to establish a fascist organization in this country…<br><br>There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned and might have been placed in execution if the financial backers deemed it expedient…<br><br>MacGuire denied (Butler's) allegations under oath, but your committee was able to verify all the pertinent statements made to General Butler, with the exception of the direct statement suggesting the creation of the organization. This, however, was corroborated in the correspondence of MacGuire with his principle, Robert Sterling Clark, of New York City, while MacGuire was abroad studying the various form of veterans' organizations of Fascist character.<br><br>Needless to say, the survival of America's democracy is not an automatic or sure thing. Americans need to remain vigilant against all enemies... both foreign and domestic.<br><br>Sources:<br>* <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>* <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Coup.htm">www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Coup.htm</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>© Copyright 1996 by Steve Kangas. Text can be quoted freely for non-commercial purposes only, with proper attribution.<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://xs35.xs.to/pics/05263/source_document.jpg"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--><br><br>* <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/other/HUAC1.pdf">www.claytoncramer.com/primary/other/HUAC1.pdf</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>* <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/other/HUAC2.pdf">www.claytoncramer.com/primary/other/HUAC2.pdf</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>* <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/other/HUAC3.pdf">www.claytoncramer.com/primary/other/HUAC3.pdf</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br>* <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.claytoncramer.com/primary/other/SpivakNewMasses.pdf">www.claytoncramer.com/primary/other/SpivakNewMasses.pdf</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br> <p></p><i></i>
