Plausibility Check:The Business Plot?
- Thread starter NickBana
- Start date
Butler could have been a worse choice to head a coup. Obviously these corporate wonks new nothing about him.
"War is a Racket." One of his quotes, doesn't side like the ideal mindset for someone expected to pull off a military coup for the sake of big business.
He went on to report the main conspiritors to police and congress.
If they'd chosen an officer like McArthur ...
"War is a Racket." One of his quotes, doesn't side like the ideal mindset for someone expected to pull off a military coup for the sake of big business.
He went on to report the main conspiritors to police and congress.
If they'd chosen an officer like McArthur ...
Assessments of the Business Plot tend to fall into one of three categories:
If #1 were indeed the case, then the plot might have gotten further had the plotters picked a different military front-man (MacArthur is the most frequently discussed candidate), but it was almost certainly doomed to failure in the long run: FDR was too popular, US political culture too hostile to the idea of a military coup, and the professional military too weak to hold the country down by force of arms.
- Smedley Butler was telling the truth: there was a serious conspiracy, made of conservative politicians and business leaders who had the brilliant idea of recruiting a self-described socialist as their military front-man.
- Some rich idiots were shooting the bull at a cocktail party. Butler heard about it and overreacted/exaggerated.
- Butler made it up out of whole cloth for personal gain or in order to slander/discredit the accused plotters and their end of the political spectrum.
If #1 were indeed the case, then the plot might have gotten further had the plotters picked a different military front-man (MacArthur is the most frequently discussed candidate), but it was almost certainly doomed to failure in the long run: FDR was too popular, US political culture too hostile to the idea of a military coup, and the professional military too weak to hold the country down by force of arms.
It depends on how the coup would develop. If you're talking a Mussolini-style March on Rome the would-be fascists would fail badly, if anything that might kick off a revolution depending on how stupid the plotters are in the execution. If it's something quiet, behind the scenes, and justified under some kind of BS health-related excuse or something similar it COULD work. Remember Hitler didn't manage to achieve full dictatorial power overnight in Germany; a similar process could happen in the US under the cloud of the Depression albeit more slowly and carefully. Legalized dictatorship is rarely established by brute force, political or military, alone.
The credibility of recruiting Butler, an FDR supporter and outspoken foe of using the military in Latin America to support American business to lead the coup speaks for itself.
There's a possiblity that there was a group of businessmen who'd made noises about the problems with the system- and one of them had a particularly idiotic flunky who decided to approach a general who was meant to have the respect of the men.
I don't think anything criminal occurred, but I can easily believe that there were some senior conservative figures who were deeply embarrassed at the incident.
I don't think anything criminal occurred, but I can easily believe that there were some senior conservative figures who were deeply embarrassed at the incident.
There is no evidence that the heads of these organizations (nor Prescott Bush, who was not a Senator till 16 years later) were involved in the alleged plot. A scion of the Du Pont family and a few other well-connected but not powerful individuals appear to have been recruited by the alleged mastermind of the plot to put up money.
He brought Butler into it to gain plausibility, and milk the rich guys for more "front money" which IMO was going into his own pocket; he was the one who told Butler about all the Big Men involved.
I pretty much agree with Rich's assessment. Butler was an unlikely person for the plotters to go to at the point where this supposedly happened, though five or ten years earlier his political views might have been more compatible with a coup. As I recall it (old and possibly fallible memory) Butler didn't actually meet with anybody major, just with a guy who claimed to be working with some major players.
As to some major figures thinking about/talking about a coup, I wouldn't be surprised. A lot of businessmen thought that some of Roosevelt's early actions with regard to bank holidays and seizure of domestically held gold were unconstitutional abuses of power and that they were the beginning of a dictatorship. I doubt that anyone with much of a grip on reality would have believed that the tiny US army of the period (a) Would attempt a coup in the first place, (b) Would have even a remote chance of pulling it off if it tried, and (c) Would govern the country in accordance with the interests of the plotters if it did take over.
Bottom line: Most likely the 'coup' attempt consisted of some drunken talk, and a con artist approaching a once-great, but increasingly delusional ex-general, who bought into the story because it fit into his world view.
As to some major figures thinking about/talking about a coup, I wouldn't be surprised. A lot of businessmen thought that some of Roosevelt's early actions with regard to bank holidays and seizure of domestically held gold were unconstitutional abuses of power and that they were the beginning of a dictatorship. I doubt that anyone with much of a grip on reality would have believed that the tiny US army of the period (a) Would attempt a coup in the first place, (b) Would have even a remote chance of pulling it off if it tried, and (c) Would govern the country in accordance with the interests of the plotters if it did take over.
Bottom line: Most likely the 'coup' attempt consisted of some drunken talk, and a con artist approaching a once-great, but increasingly delusional ex-general, who bought into the story because it fit into his world view.