9/28/2023 0 Comments Smedley butler threatThe plan was never executed thanks to Butler, and the political and media class kind of collectively decided not to talk much about it, so it has almost entirely faded from memory. Ryan Grim: So chances are you’ve never heard the name Smedley Butler before, but if you have, it’s probably in the context of one of the wildest conspiracies ever hatched against an American president. In a new book on Butler’s career, “Gangsters of Capitalism,” Jonathan Katz details Butler’s life and explains how it dovetails with the broader story of American empire at the turn of the century. I operated on three continents.“I was a racketeer a gangster for capitalism.” So declared famed Marine Corps officer Smedley Butler in 1935, at the end of a long career spent blazing a path for American interests in Cuba, Nicaragua, China, the Philippines, Panama, and Haiti. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. This is typical with everyone in the military service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. ![]() It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. War for any other reason is simply a racket.There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. There are only two things we should fight for. I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. ![]() It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC. | Categories: Guest Contributions | Tags: | Print This Article Smedley Butler on Interventionism
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