This American military general achieved a dramatic epiphany after serving the US ruling class in leading its military to pursue various imperialist adventures during the 1920s and 30s. Butler's small book published in 1935 is the story of this epiphany.
But what is far more important is the story of the attempted recruitment of General Butler by right-wing ideologues to replace president Franklin Roosevelt with a right-wing dictatorship. This is an extremely important part of US history, but one that will never be included in US school curricula at any level simply because it is at odds with ruling class propaganda. To recover this missing history, you will need to read a book by Jules Archer entitled, The Plot to Seize the White House. But a succinct summary is provided in the first paragraph of a comment to the posted article provided by Jim Craven which reads as follows:
Smedley Butler was a hero but not, and he said so himself, for that which got him nominated three times and awarded twice the Medal of Honor. His real heroism came when he was approached in 1934 by a representative of a cabal of right-wing businessmen (including the Bushes of course) plotting to overthrow FDR and establish a fascist dictatorship with Butler (who commanded the affection of many troops unlike McArthur, also involved in the plot who was hated by the troops) commanding a 500,000 man army of veterans as shock troops for the oligarchs. Butler went along with them long enough to expose them publicly and bring on an investigation that went nowhere because those involved were “too big to fail” and would have taken out FDR as colateral damage at minimum,However, even among those who have knowledge of this sordid episode, many fail to see that the fascist wing of the ruling class did not cease in their ambitions with this setback. In fact, after WWII they succeeded beyond even their wildest, twisted imaginations. The way they did this comprises the real post WWII history of the US which I have been working all my life to uncover. I hope to write more about it from time to time in my blog.
