General Smedley D Butler Statement on The 1935 Plot Against FDR

In 1933, Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "Old Gimlet Eye - a Medal Of Honor decorated military hero - became involved in a controversy known as the Business Plot, where a group of wealthy industrialists were planning a military coup to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The Business Plot or The Plot Against FDR or The White House Putsch was an alleged conspiracy brought to light by a retired General, involving moneyed interests who intended to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the early years of the Great Depression. The allegations of the plot came to light when Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler notified the McCormack-Dickstein Committee in 1933 and testified to the existence of the plot. The McCormack-Dickstein Committee was the first House Committee On Un-American Activities (HUAC). In his testimony, Butler stated that a group of several men, representing mainly Wall-Street Banking interests had approached him to help lead a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a fascist military coup. In their final report, the Congressional committee supported General Butler's claims on the existence of the plot, but no prosecutions or further investigations followed, and the matter was mostly forgotten.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

I appeared before the Congressional Committee, the highest representation of the American people, under subpoena, to tell what I knew of activities which I believe might lead to an attempt to set up a fascist dictatorship.

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.

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.

I talked with an investigator for this Committee who came to me with a subpoena on Sunday November 18. He told me they had unearthed evidence linking my name with several such veteran organizations.

As it then it seemed to me to be getting serious, I felt it was my duty to tell all I knew of such activities to this Committee.

My main interest in all this is to preserve our democratic institutions. I want to retain the right to vote, the right to speak freely, and the right to write.

If we maintain these basic principles our democracy is safe. No dictatorship can exist with suffrage, freedom of speech and press.

See Also: War Is A Racket by Major General Smedley Butler https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

Historian Uwe Alschner on the ideology of eugenics, the fascist Business Plot coup attempt, and the McCormack-Dickstein Committee Gen Butler refers to in his statement https://ratical.org/PandemicParallaxView/NeverAgainIsNowGlobal5.html#S6 from Never Again Is Now Global Episode 5. Never Give In—Never Give Up https://ratical.org/PandemicParallaxView/NeverAgainIsNowGlobal5.html

*The Plot to Seize the White House The Shocking TRUE Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow F.D.R. * Jules Archer, 1973 https://www.wanttoknow.info/plottoseizethewhitehouse https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/ThePlotToSeizeTheWhiteHouse-1973.pdf