For some reason, the story of Smedley Butler stuck with me. I saw a mention of him once years ago as part of some longer History Channel documentary, where he had been approached to lead a fascist overthrow of the American government during the Great Depression, but Butler not only refused to go along with the plan, but he reported it to Congress and possibly prevented what is known as the Business Plot from even happening. But then, for some reason, Butler was largely forgotten by history. The best explanation for why I remembered him at all was simply the fact that his first name was “Smedley,” and let’s face it, there aren’t too many people around with that name these days.
I finally decided to learn some more, so I read the late Jules Archer’s account of Butler’s life and his connection to the Business Plot, The Plot to Seize the White House.
Archer begins his narrative with Butler, retired and living a quiet life in Pennsylvania, being approached by a bond salesman. Said salesman claims to represent powerful interests looking to speed up one of Butler’s pet issues, getting a promised bonus to war veterans, and they would be glad offer that support if Butler would give a speech at an American Legion convention that would, in part, condemn FDR’s decision to take the country off the gold standard. Butler is no fan of the men who run the Legion, but he also doesn’t seem to understand what the gold standard has to do with the bonus. The salesman is a very persistent fellow, and after multiple entreaties over time, he opts to say that his wealthy financers are interested in setting Butler up as the man running the country with FDR reduced to a figurehead. They believe Butler is popular enough with veterans to lead a veteran army to Washington and demand change, essentially making America into a fascist state. Butler, a patriot, plays along to find out what he can while on the side doing what he can to stop them, eventually testifying to a Congressional committee about the whole thing. By Archer’s account, any hope that the Business Plot had to succeed was dashed as a result of one stubborn patriot’s refusal to subvert democracy and the Constitution.
Archer does do something interesting in his overall narrative in that after establishing the plot, he then goes back and tells Butler’s life story. Raised a Quaker, Butler joined the Marines and saw a lot of combat, but nothing that in his later years made him feel particularly proud. Oh, he was proud of his accomplishments with his men and the locals who seemed to adore him, but his problem was the missions he was sent on. He wasn’t afraid to fight, but he likewise wasn’t happy that much of his combat was done in service to American business interests. He tended to get in trouble for speaking his mind as he got older, but he was always admired and loved by the men underneath him and the natives of whatever country he was going through since he tended to show them a great deal of respect while following orders that he gradually became disillusioned by. The one time he might have seen something of a straight-up fight was the first World War, but his administrative skills kept him away from the front lines as his superiors saw him as a better fit to run a hospital base far from the front. After retiring from the military, Butler took on veterans issues and went on a speaking tour. In many ways, he was an obvious choice to lead the coup as, in Archer’s telling, he was incredibly popular with veterans and common folk across the country. But his main goals as he grew older was to avoid war except in defense of the nation’s borders, taking care of veterans, and a great hatred for fascism and the wealthy who saw no problem letting other people die for their bottom lines.
As it is, I found Archer’s style a bit problematic. Wikipedia tells me he often wrote for younger readers, and something like this might be more appropriate for them, but he wrote the book in a somewhat hero-worshipping style. If Butler ever did wrong in his life, Archer won’t say anything about it. He even makes a small excuse for Archer’s isolationism late in the book. Butler, according to Archer, saw American involvement in the second World War as inevitable and hated the idea of more Americans dying for other countries’ conflicts. However, Butler did not live to see the Pearl Harbor attacks, so what he might have said after that is unknown.
If anything, there was a part of me that thought the evidence of the plot was a little thin. I did some really quick research after finishing the book and learned that while no historians seem to doubt Butler’s honesty, there is a great deal of skepticism about whether or not the bond salesman was telling Butler the truth, or if that man was somehow working both Butler and his wealthy backers for his own benefit. The problem there is the Congressional committee looking into the matter had a limited amount of time to do so and was not renewed to continue the investigation, so whether or not there really was a Business Plot is questionable for the simple fact that the investigation was never completed. However, I would say that Butler himself showed a great deal of courage and patriotism to report what he heard in the first place. He likewise spent many of his later years attacking the sort of people who saw America’s armed forces as the security wing of overseas financial interests. Butler had good reason to write the short book War Is a Racket, and he saw those reasons first hand. On the one hand, it is probably a good thing for people to remember men like Smedley Butler. On the other, Archer’s book didn’t appeal to me as much as I had hoped it would.
Grade: B-
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