On this Veterans Day holiday, it’s a perfect occasion to talk about a true American hero that you have never heard of — Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler. He is one of only nineteen badass soldiers who have ever been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor – twice. And he just may have been resposible for saving American democracy.
Butler grew up in West Chester, Pennsylvania and was educated in Quaker schools. He entered the Marines as a teenager and served for thirty-three years, moving up through the ranks to major general. Wounded in combat and a recipient of not one but two Congressional Medals of Honor, Butler retired from the military in 1931 as the youngest, most decorated major general in the Marines.
In 1924, the corruption in the city of Philadelphia was so bad that the mayor asked President Coolidge to release a military general on a leave of absence to fight the corruption as police chief. He sent General Butler who did indeed reduce corruption, so much so that the mayor fired him in 1925. You could almost hear the mayor say in a back room somewhere, “I wanted him to fight corruption, not eliminate it”.
After his retirement, Butler maintained contact and popularity with veterans and was a strong promoter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). He was disgusted at the way that then President Herbert Hoover refused to meet with the 1932 Veterans Bonus March protestors and how Hoover used Army calvary to disperse their campground. Although Butler was a Republican, he campaigned tirelessly against Hoover’s re-election.
In 1934, Butler exposed that he was approached by a middle man for powerful banking, Wall Street and industrial interests. They wanted to gauge his interest in leading a conspiracy (being a front man) to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt and establish a fascist dictatorship of the sort that was taking place in Germany and Italy at that time. When Butler exposed the plot, it was quickly and quietly dissolved. All the big shots behind it stuck together and called it a hoax and fake news. Congress held hearings on the matter but the puppet masters effectively quashed any subsequent action regarding the plot and it became a forgotten footnote of history.
Throughout the 1930’s, Butler continued to speak out against the big corporate interests who he said actually pulled the strings of the puppet politicians. In his 1935 book, “War Is A Racket”, he wrote, ” I spent thirty three years in active military service ….. 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.”
The military-industrial complex, that was first identified and warned about by President Eisenhower, has now grown to epic proportions as generals and admirals in retirement slide directly from retirement to the boards of giant defense contractors. People of General Butler’s truthfulness, character and honesty are needed now more than ever.
General Smedly Darlington Butler, (1881-1940)— A Man of Remarkable Achievement, Uncompromising Integrity and Rock-Solid Incorruptability — A True American Hero.