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Writer's pictureDan Spencer

The Peculiar Truth about the Coup to Overthrow FDR

  • November 1934: Retired General Smedley Butler asked for and received an audience before Congress to warn of a conspiracy to overthrow the Roosevelt Presidency and install a military-backed puppet leader - namely him.

  • Two years earlier, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been elected US President for the 1st time. A cabal of conservative businessmen wanted to thwart FDR’s New Deal.

  • 1933: A Wall Street bond salesman named Gerald Maguire visited General Butler. Maguire represented the American Liberty League, a newly contrived political organization.

  • The Liberty League claimed to be citizens sworn to uphold the Constitution but was in fact a loose affiliation of rightwing corporate businessmen that included bankers from J.P. Morgan, General Motors chairman Alfred P. Sloan (whose foundation has supported PBS broadcasting for decades), Dupont chemical company’s Irenee Dupont, Robert Clark of Singer Sewing Machine, and high-ranking executives from oil companies, an advertising agency, and General Foods, among others. Most notable was Grayson Murphy, a lawyer who represented America’s most powerful bank, J.P. Morgan & Co.

  • The League wanted Butler to speak in Chicago at an American Legion convention. The speech would be written for him with the aim of riling the military to help overthrow Roosevelt’s government.

  • They would model their coup on one that had succeeded in France; the Croix de Feu (or Fiery Cross) had toppled the democratic prime minister.

  • The ultimate plan was to usher the Liberty League into the White House with Butler leading the way. FDR would retain his title but would be a mere figurehead. Butler would control the military, hence all the power, and the Liberty League would control him.

  • General Butler was having none of it.

  • Smedley Butler was the most respected man in the Marine Corps and a household name. He fought in Spain, in China, and in WWI. Books were written about his military exploits. He received the Medal of Honor twice. Veterans loved him.

  • He had also secretly helped overthrow governments in Haiti, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic on behalf of American corporate interests. He was in Wall Street’s back pocket, and he hated it. He later called himself “a racketeer for capitalism.”

  • In August 1934, Maguire presented the General with a suitcase full of cash and told him that it was time “to get the soldiers together.”

  • Grayson Murphy offered to pay off his mortgage if he went along with the scheme.

  • Instead, Butler went to Congress.

  • He didn’t go alone, however. He took with him a newspaper reporter, Comly French, who had also spoken with Maguire. French explained that the League sought “a Fascist Government” and “a dictator who would come galloping in on his white horse.” They claimed that would save capitalism.

  • The Liberty League settled for Butler but they really wanted Douglas MacArthur, as he seemed more dictatorial.

  • Gerald Maguire was called to testify before Congress. He nervously claimed that he was involved with the coup and that he worked for Grayson Murphy but that it was all Smedley Butler’s idea.

  • Before he could provide any more information, Maguire died suddenly at age 36 of pneumonia with high stress as a contributing factor.

  • The news media ate up the story but eventually ignored it. Congress swept the whole matter under the rug.

  • Smedley Butler and the Business Plot, as it was later known, were largely forgotten.

  • The coup failed, if it ever actually existed, and FDR was elected two more times.

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