Smedley Butler

In 1934 he testified to the House Un-American Activities Committee that he had been approached by a group of wealthy industrialists the previous year who wanted him to head a movement that would overthrow the US government and install a "business-friendly" government. They were fierce opponents of newly elected US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and did not want him to take office. Their plan--which came to be known a "The Business Plot"--was to create an organization of US army veterans that would march on Washington and then stage a coup d'etat against Roosevelt, who they accused of being a socialist and a Communist and more interested in taking care of the poor, destroying free enterprise and diluting the assets of the wealthy by taking the US off the gold standard. They came to Butler because he was a well-known and respected military hero--he was a retired Marine Corps general who had been awarded two Congressional Medals of Honor--and they believed that his status would result in regular army troops refusing to use force to prevent him from taking over the government.According to Butler, the plot involved the CEOs of Guaranty Trust--a large New York bank--Remington Arms Co., Grayson Murphy & Co., a Wall Street securities trading firm; and a member of the family that controlled the Singer Corp, a manufacturer of sewing machines. The plotters had promised him that this new veterans organization would draw members from existing veterans organization such as The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and would number about 500,000 men.The story of the plot was broken in the New York Times in November of 1934. Butler and several of the alleged conspirators were called to testify before Congress. Butler said the allegations were absolutely true and named the CEOs involved, although they denied it and a campaign was mounted in the conservative press to discredit Butler. The committee's final report, however, said that it found Butler's allegations credible and was able to verify all of his statements. The national commander of the VFW also testified that he had been approached by the very people Butler named who wanted his help in forming a new "veterans" organization that would install a fascist dictatorship in the US.In the end, the committee took no action but did order any mention of the individuals and corporations involved in the "Business Plot" to be deleted from the transcripts of the hearing and the transcripts themselves sealed and, as of this writing--2017--the transcripts and the evidence in them is unavailable to be viewed by the general public.

Was awarded two Medals of Honor, for actions in the Mexican Campaign on 22 April 1914 and in the Haitian Campaign on 17 November 1915.

Smedley Butler was born on March 12, 1881 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA as Smedley Darlington Butler. He is known for his work on American Secrets. He was married to Ethel Conway Peters.