Michael Pollak wrote:
> On Sun, 14 Feb 1999 Rkmickey at aol.com wrote:
>
> > (1)There have been a few referrences on this thread to a plot in the 1930s to
> > use a retired general to seize the White House. I believe that the general
> > involved was not Smedley Butler, who during much of the 1930s was associated
> > with the popular front rather than the right e.g., he was a leader of the
> > American League Against War and Fascism.
>
> I thought the same thing at first, K -- Smedley's speech about making
> Nicaragua safe for Brown Brothers is famous. But when I double checked on
> the web, I found Paul Rosenberg was right after all. That speech seems to
> have come in reaction to this plot. Perhaps he didn't make any public
> speeches on the politics until he was out of the military, so the boys at
> Morgan didn't know? I admit it makes the whole incident doubly weird.
> Below is some background info, a citation, and a copy of the famous speech
> I found while I was trolling around:
>
> <quote>
>
> General Smedley D. Butler was the most decorated soldier in American
> uniform; Commander of the Marine Corps school; and passed over for
> Marine Corps commandant only because of his increasingly
> anti-imperialist views.
>
> He was very popular with rank-and-file soldiers and veterans. He
> strongly defended the "Bonus Marchers", attacked by U.S. troops under
> General Douglas MacArthur and Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower in
> Washington DC in 1932.
>
> In an incident whose history is suppressed today, Gen. Butler was
> approached by representatives of the Morgan Bank who wished him to
> lead a fascist military coup d'état against the Roosevelt government
> in 1932. He refused and went to the press. A Congressional
> investigation was eventually suppressed. See Jules Archer, The Plot to
> Seize the White House for a recent, documented version of this
> cover-up, well-publicized at the time but virtually "blacked out"
> today!
>
> -- Grover Furr)
>
> [From Grover Furr's Politics and Social Issues Page:
> http://www.shss.montclair.edu/english/furr/butler1.html
>
> And here is a key excerpt from the famous and wonderful speech, which, it
> turns out, dates from 1933:
>
> -- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley
> Butler, USMC.
>
> War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as
> something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only
> a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for
> the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
>
> I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If
> a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble
> with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over
> here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent.
> Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
>
> I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy
> investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should
> fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the
> Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
>
> There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang
> is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its
> "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war
> preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
>
> It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison.
> Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four
> months in active military service as a member of this country's
> most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all
> commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And
> during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class
> muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers.
> In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
>
> I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure
> of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had
> a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties
> remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of
> higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
>
> I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil
> interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for
> the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the
> raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits
> of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify
> Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in
> 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light
> to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In
> China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way
> unmolested.
>
> During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say,
> a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given
> Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his
> racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
>
> __________________________________________________________________________
> Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com