The Whitehouse Coup (1933) 1 of 3

The "Business Plot" (also the Plot Against FDR and the White House Putsch) was an alleged political conspiracy in 1933 wherein wealthy businessmen and corporations plotted a coup détat to overthrow United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1934, the Business Plot was publicly revealed by retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testifying to the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional Committee. In his testimony, Butler claimed that a group of men had approached him as part of a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a military coup. One of the alleged plotters, Gerald MacGuire, vehemently denied any such plot. In their final report, the Congressional committee supported Butler's allegations of the existence of the plot, but no prosecutions or further investigations followed, and the matter was mostly forgotten.

On July 17, 1932, thousands of World War I veterans converged on Washington, D.C., set up tent camps, and demanded immediate payment of bonuses due them according to the Adjusted Service Certificate Law of 1924. This "Bonus Army" was led by Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant. The Army was encouraged by an appearance from retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, who had considerable influence over the veterans, being one of the most popular military figures of the time. A few days after Butler's arrival, President Herbert Hoover ordered the marchers removed, and their camps were destroyed by US Army cavalry troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur.
Butler, although a self-described Republican, responded by supporting Roosevelt in that year's election.

In a 1995 History Today article Clayton Cramer argued that the devastation of the Great Depression had caused many Americans to question the foundations of liberal democracy. "Many traditionalists, here and in Europe, toyed with the ideas of Fascism and National Socialism; many liberals dallied with Socialism and Communism." Cramer argues that this explains why some American business leaders viewed fascism as a viable system to both preserve their interests and end the economic woes of the Depression.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business...

***audio is available for free using Realplayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/d...

• Category

  News & Politics

[ThisWeekInFascism]

The US Chamber Of Commerce engineered 9/11.

Just like the Liberty League engineered the overthrow of FDR in 1933.

[Cyclonus21]

Kinda funny since true Fascism is supposed to reject Capitalism. This shit is fucking big business fascism.

[ThisWeekInFascism]

...and today the right-wing (even the alleged "left" too) is rejecting capitalism AND they've all got a hard-on for all things military. Even the public does. It's both Mussolini (business) fascism AND (nationalistic/Hitler) war-fever fascism.

The American fascist's goal is, "to capture political power so that, using the power of the state [military] and the power of the market [business] simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection." -Vice President Henry A. Wallace 1944

[marcostar57]

How is today's right-wing, especially, "rejecting capitalism?" On the contrary, they believe that "free-market" capitalism is a cure-all. Actually it's predatory-capitalism that they live & breath for ..and which some corporatist Dems support.

[ThisWeekInFascism]

They all - dems/repubs - hate the "free market". The free market means no government intrusion - letting the customer decide. Well, "the marketplace" no longer decides anything. The marketeers do. They manipulate a dumbed-down public into choosing between false choices. Americans no longer know what's in their own self interest. Our government has been taken over by "the marketeers". That's textbook Fascism.

[AsTimeDilates]

..."No government intrusion" and "Letting the customer decide" are absolute polar opposites...

A free market is one in which the government has strict rules which facilitate allowing the customer decide...if the government does not serve this function the corporations will force upon the public whatever they wish...

When republicans say free market what they mean is no regulations so that corporations can control people.

[ThisWeekInFascism]

Right. That's what I mean. I'm using a far-right laissez-faire definition of "free market" from the 1980's. We've gone so far into fascism that laissez-faire now means socialism. In other words, if the government DOESN'T get involved with corporations and work on their behalf, it's spun as socialism. Any regulation of any kind is no longer common sense conservatism like it used to be considered.

[Paganiproductions]

I heard that the bush family was involved in this crime

[32rumandcoke]

does anyone else have a hard time watching this vid on their smartphone?

[Vincenzo Pietracatella]

This is a direct quote from the inventor of fascism..."Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." ~Benito Mussolini

[Johnny M]

2 party first past the post politics is a racket useful to the war racketeers here& abroad, we would be better having a cooperative direct democracy like the Swiss.

[etniks]

EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR IS OWED TO A BANK BY SOMEBODY.

Those who have money in their account, that money is owed to a bank by some body else.

It is a clever way to steal from society and use the funds to bribe politicians and bend the laws to fit their agenda.

Debt-Based money is POISON, we need to create Asset-Based money like Lincoln did with the GREENBACK.

Today's "crisis" is based on FAKE DEBTS, because nations, like banks CAN CREATE MONEY INTEREST-FREE OUT OF THIN AIR, but with no interest

[Tyler Dillon]

Instead they waited until NOV 1963.

[Garry Harriman]

A simmilar thing almost happend in the UK in the early 1970s. It could be argued that the same thing happened all through history all around the world. It certainly happnended for real in the US in 1963. The `new pearl harbour` (as artculated in the PNAC `rebuilding America`s defences`) that we all know as `9/11` was, in my view, the event that may have been such an ocurance current times and the series of events that have occured since.

[AroundSun]

No they don't. The right believes in crony capitalism and corporatism, the last thing they want is a free market where producers actually have to compete in the marketplace...

[jessgarza88]

that sentence sounds like something that will be repeated all through out american history from now on

[saintearth]

Strange how we're having record heat and drought weather wise (Dust bowl), depression economy wise and the rise of fascism these day. History seems to be repeating itself.