Maverick Marine: General Smedley D.Gather ‘round, students, for this week’s history lesson.The Business of War ( ) (an excerpt about Smedley Butler) by Wade Frazier.An American Coup d'État? ( ) by Clayton E.War is A Racket ( ) by General Smedley D.Butler Citations ( ) from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society ( ) Butler, USMC ( ) from the Marine CorpsLegacy Museum ( ) Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History. His doctor had described his illness as an incurable condition of the upper abdominal tract, presumably cancer. Smedley Butler died at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, June 21, 1940. The Camp Smedley Butler Marine Corps base on Okinawa, Japan is named in honor of Butler. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National city Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. The following, from the Socialist newspaper Common Sense in 1935, is one of his most widely quoted statements. He also spoke at times to the Communist Party of the United States of America. Between 19, Butler served as a spokesman for the League Against War and Fascism, a leftist organization. His book War is a Racket holds a highly critical view of the profit motive behind warfare. Senate.īutler was known for his outspoken views against war profiteering and what he viewed as nascent fascism in the United States. In 1932, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. On October 1, 1931, Butler retired from the Marines. In 1927, Butler served a tour in China, and returned to the United States in 1929 as a Major General. Unlike many at the time, Butler insisted on enforcing the law against all violators, rich and poor, and this earned him both enmity and respect. His duty was to enforce Prohibition, a monumentally difficult task. In 1924- 1925, Butler was loaned to the city of Philadelphia to serve as a police commissioner. He received a Distinguished Service Medal in 1919. On November 17, 1915, he earned his second Medal of Honor for the capture of Fort Riviere, Haiti. Then in April of 1914, Butler earned his first Medal of Honor for the capture of Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico during the U.S. From 1909 to 1912, he served in Nicaragua. Consulate in Honduras from rebels.īutler was married on Jto Ethel C. Then in 1903, he fought to protect the U.S. In 1900 he received a brevet promotion to Captain for his action during the Boxer Rebellion (which brevet promotion qualified him to receive the Marine Corps Brevet Medal in 1921). He fought in the Philippine-American War later that year. He attended Haverford College and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. This scandal is known as the Business Plot.īutler was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania and Roosevelt with the help of General Butler. ( jsessionid=i9loc2s2gabd?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Business+Plot) by wealthy industrialists seeking to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Congress in 1933 to report that a failed coup had been plotted An immensely popular figure in the United States at the time, Butler led the Bonus Army and came forward to the U.S. Butler was twice the recipient of the Medal of Honor, one of only 19 to be so honored he is noted for his outspoken left-wing views and his book War is a Racket, one of the first works describing the military-industrial complex. Marine Corps and at the time of his death the most decorated marine in U.S. Smedley Darlington Butler ( July 30, 1881– June 21, 1940), nicknamed " the fighting Quaker" and " Old Gimlet Eye," was a Major General in the U.S.
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