General smedley butler coup12/1/2023 He implied that his organization had the support of several political leaders, and the financial backing of some of the country’s most affluent individuals and successful corporations. He claimed to represent The Committee for a Sound Dollar, whose primary purpose was to pressure the president to reinstate the gold standard. Though Butler declined the invitation, one of the men- Gerald MacGuire- made several subsequent visits during which he disclosed additional details. On the 1st of July 1933, Smedley Butler was visited by a pair of gentlemen who had come to urge him to run for the office of National Commander of the American Legion, an influential organization of veterans. ![]() Convinced that the program would produce cataclysmic economic effects, the cabal of capitalist conspirators allegedly set their plan into motion. Such sentiments were cemented following the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his promised New Deal, a series of reforms which decoupled American currency from the gold standard and erected a tall stack of corporate regulations. ![]() Revolutionary rumblings were afoot, and some of the nation’s wealthiest men began to seriously contemplate taking matters into their own hands. The incident, combined with the economic breakdown it represented, led many citizens to suspect that the liberal democracy of America was hopelessly broken. Brandishing rifles, bayonets, and tear gas, the soldiers scattered the so-called Bonus Army and set their shanty town ablaze. General Smedley “Old Gimlet Eye” Butler addressed the marchers amidst a storm of applause, describing the event as “the greatest demonstration of Americanism we’ve ever had.” Three days later, two cavalry regiments descended upon the veterans’ encampment. The mass of over twenty thousand men- all unemployed by the Great Depression- were assembled to urge the early payout of their Service Certificates a pension which had been granted to them in 1924, but was not scheduled to be paid for another thirteen years. At his own request, Butler retired from active duty soon thereafter.Ībout six months later, he stood before a sea of exasperated World War 1 veterans which surrounded Washington DC’s Capitol Hill. His irritation increased when he was threatened with a court-martial due to an uncomplimentary comment regarding Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. But his candid comments regarding military misapplication had won him many political enemies, including President Hoover, and he was consequently denied the appointment. Neville died unexpectedly, it was widely assumed that the responsibility would pass to the most senior major general on the active list, General Smedley Butler. In July 1930, when the Commandant of the Marine Corps Wendell C. Despite his intrepid leadership in multiple conflicts, Smedley “the Fighting Quaker” Butler gradually cultivated some resentment towards the frequent misuse of the military as a corporate cudgel. During his service he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal of both the Army and the Navy he was one of only twenty people in history to receive the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and he was one of only a handful of men to twice receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. General Smedley Darlington Butler’s long military career was packed with conspicuous gallantry, and owing to his bravery and brilliance he was highly respected throughout the ranks. It was the conspirators’ earnest hope that their army of 500,000 Great War veterans, under the leadership of General Butler, could overpower the US’ feeble peacetime military and reconstitute the government as a more economical fascist dictatorship. To assist them in their diabolical scheme, the resourceful plotters recruited the assistance of Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, a venerated, highly decorated, and considerably jaded former Marine. As men of action, the well-financed New York group sought to eliminate what they reasoned to be the crux of the catastrophe: the United States government. As a consequence of the Great Depression, the countryside was littered with unemployed, and the world’s wealthy were watching as their fortunes deflated and their investments evaporated. ![]() In the early 1930s, a secret collection of prosperous men are said to have assembled in New York City to discuss the dissolution of America’s democracy.
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