General Smedley Butler
Two Congressional Medals of Honor, countless other decorations, one of our greatest fighting men.
I spent 33 years...being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.... I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912.
I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested....I had...a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions....I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three cities. The Marines operated on three continents...
Speech to American Legion Convention,
War is a Racket by Gen. Smedley Butler
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the 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 very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows?
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill. War is a Racket, Gen. Smedley Butler, 1935
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They assembled and were then attacked by U.S. troops led by Gen. Douglas Macarthur, at the order of President Hoover. Gen. Douglas Macarthur thought they were Communists. This and other stories defining the veterans as a threat were all nonsense.
This event was ironic, as well, since right wing elements in the nation would later solicit Gen. Butler to lead a similar protest that would have given the fascist element and excuse to stop FDR's efforts to end what they felt was socialism. Butler blew the whistle with a vengance.
Who will be our Smedley Butler?
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