Smedley’s War: one Marine’s role in history

“The Invisible Hand carries a big stick.” — Anonymous

At one time, the word “dictator” had positive connotations in our republic. Studebaker made a car called the Dictator, which sold well between 1927 and 1937. There was also a time during which our country had a sense of empire and Manifest Destiny — both were considered “good” things. Admiral Matthew Perry’s “Gunboat Diplomacy” — steaming into Tokyo Harbor in 1854 and forcing the Japanese government to open trade with the U.S. — is one example.

Attitudes toward facism in the United States also have changed over the years, especially during the career of Marine Major General Smedley Butler. Without his influences, our country might not be what it is today.

Serving from 1898 to 1931, Butler became the most decorated Marine in U.S. history at the time, receiving the Medal of Honor twice. His name became a household name as recognizable as Colin Powell or David Petraeus.

In 1933, he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy industrialists had invited him to conspire in a military coup to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt. Allegedly, he was selected to lead a march of veterans to take over the government and become dictator. This became known as the “Business Plot.”

Today, we might call the so-called plotters “1-percenters,” because of their wealth.

Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 during the worst financial crisis in U.S. history. He took the country off the Gold Standard, reacting to similar actions in Britain, which cost many American jobs. Many prominent leaders were infuriated by Roosevelt’s action. This is seen as part of the inspiration of the Business Plot.

Butler testified on the plan to the House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee. His allegations were considered to be credible by the committee, but ridiculed by many in the press.

Butler told the committee that he had met with certain individuals claiming to represent the plotters. The committee seemed to believe such meetings took place, but no full-scale plot was ever proven to have existed. Many conspiracy theories have been inspired by these committee hearings. The committee did not publish names of the alleged business leaders. Prescott Bush (grandfather of George W. Bush) and his father-in-law George Herbert Walker, however, are two names that have become associated with the Business Plot.

There is left-wing hyperbole today that exacerbates such opinions, but many business leaders and celebrities showed positive attitudes to fascism at the time. Prescott Bush and his father-in-law, for example, had been on the board of directors of the Union Banking Corporation which provided seed money to start the Nazi Party.

A more middle-of-the-road opinion has been made: opportunists interpreted angry comments made by business leaders as proof of the existence of such a plot, and for their own reasons approached Butler. Butler’s own epiphany is expressed well in his book, “War Is A Racket.”

Butler’s rethinking of his military career was influenced by comments made by Benito Mussolini, who was the founder of the Fascist Party and dictator in Italy. Mussolini said an alternate name for “fascism” was “corporatism,” “because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

Today, the word “fascist” is probably the most used political pejorative by left- and right-wing affiliates to demonize each other. But in 1933, the word “fascism” denoted a well-defined, political philosophy that had developed in opposition to socialism.

Butler had come to think and speak of his military service as being the tool of a merger of corporate and government powers. By the early 1930s, he was touring the nation denouncing military engagements in which he had served as war profiteering and incipient fascism to support a corporate agenda.

Although former Representative John McCormack — chairman of HUAC — chose not to pursue Butler’s allegations, he said, “If the late Major General Smedley Butler of the U.S. Marine Corps had not been a stubborn devotee of democracy, Americans today could conceivably be living under an American Mussolini, Hitler, or Franco.”

There is much conjecture that the choice not to pursue Butler’s allegations was because the supposed collaborators were too powerful. There is another theory, which I find even more interesting, that supposes Roosevelt made a deal with the Business Plotters, such that they were to moderate their opposition to his policies, and in turn, he would not turn Congress and the American people loose on them.

I like that idea: Roosevelt was a 1-percenter himself and moved in the same circles as the suspected plotters.

Perhaps the truth about this will never be known, but as this election season soon comes to an end, Alaskans would do well to be thankful they don’t answer to a dictator.

Tim Johnson is a computer programmer who lives in Palmer and is owner of AKWebsoft. Read more at TJ49.com.