… It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. imperialism, famously writing, “War is a racket. But Smedley Butler later spoke out against U.S. invasions and occupations across the globe, including in Cuba, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Mexico and the Philippines. No dictatorship can exist with suffrage, freedom of speech and press.ĪMY GOODMAN: At the time, Marine Major General Smedley Butler was one of the most celebrated Marine officers in the country, having played key roles in U.S. If we maintain these basic principles, our democracy is safe. I want to retain the right to vote, the right to speak freely and the right to write. My main interest in all this is to preserve our democratic institutions. As it then seemed to me to be getting serious, I felt it was my duty to tell all I knew of such activities to this committee. He told me they had unearthed evidence linking my name with several such veteran organizations. I talked with an investigator for this committee who came to me with a subpoena on Sunday, November 18. The upshot of the whole thing was that I was supposed to lead an organization of 500,000 men which would be able to take over the functions of government.

The plan, as outlined to me, was to form an organization of veterans to use as a bluff, or as a club at least, to intimidate the government and break down our democratic institutions. SMEDLEY BUTLER: I appeared before the congressional committee, the highest representation of the American people, under subpoena to tell what I knew of activities which I believed might lead to an attempt to set up a fascist dictatorship. This is a clip of General Smedley Butler speaking in 1934. But Butler refused and revealed what he knew to members of Congress. The men asked the celebrated Marine Corps officer Smedley Butler to lead a military coup. and the former president of DuPont, Irénée du Pont. The coup plotters included the head of General Motors, Alfred P. Some of the nation’s most powerful bankers and business leaders plotted to overthrow President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in order to block the New Deal and establish a fascist dictatorship. Capitol and Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, we turn to look at a largely forgotten effort to topple the U.S.

I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.Īs the January 6th House committee and federal prosecutors continue investigation into last year’s deadly insurrection at the U.S. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!,, The War and Peace Report.

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