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_Plot
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June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
@Cyclonus21 True …
@Cyclonus21 True fascism is supposed to reject Capitalism? That is wrong. Fascism is typically quite capitalistic in nature. Fascists despised communism (not Capitalism), and they believed that there should be both weak and powerful in society (much like Capitalists in America).
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
@ThisWeekInFascism …
@ThisWeekInFascism Agreed ..that’s why I used the quotation marks ..because its not true capitalism but yet it’s labeled thus. And I feel there is really NO SUCH thing as true free-market capitalism. It leads to a predatory-monopoly & a corporatist state — that which we have today.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
@marcostar57 They …
@marcostar57 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.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
@ThisWeekInFascism …
@ThisWeekInFascism 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.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
@Cyclonus21 …
@Cyclonus21 Actually, Fascism is the logical result of capitalism.
Once raw materials become scarce, their cost will become too expensive for the middle class to afford. To quell discontent with the system, which now openly favors the “haves” over the “have nots,” the corporatists will have to bring the military to control the masses.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
coporate selfish …
coporate selfish greed. see return of the Hippie
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
they failed in 1933 …
they failed in 1933 but were sucessful in 1963 & eventually Prescott Bush got his fascist puppet Nixon in the whitehouse after JFK & RFK were gone.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
unless the populace …
unless the populace is ready to eat rats
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Couldn’t agree more.
Couldn’t agree more.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
…and today the …
…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
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Kinda funny since …
Kinda funny since true Fascism is supposed to reject Capitalism. This is big business fascism.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
@swansong6666 …
@swansong6666 Actually the Tea baggers are being used by the fascists now to prevent people from having medical care like in the rest of the industrialized world. Most of them are supporting the scum who stole their 401K, Social Security benefits etc.. They are just not aware of it yet. Screw Wall St. and the banks that seek to enslave our nation for the benefit of the plutocrats. Bring out the guillotines. War Is A Racket!!!!!!!!!
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
a couix was …
a couix was thwarted,BULLSHIT. Resist oligarchy now. “We The People” are null and void unless we rise up.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
@swansong6666
…
@swansong6666
Wall street would destroy this Democracy in a heartbeat to preserve it’s profits and greedy CEOs. If we can’t control it we need to destroy it before it destroys the US.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Look up the …
Look up the Southern Poverty Law Center website, they have a recent report about the huge increase in militia activity, singling out Glenn Beck as the leading hatemonger.
Gun sales are up 30% since the election according to 60 minutes, also.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
WOW. this is so …
WOW. this is so fitting to today’s sentiments, tea-baggers and all, people trying to overthrow the president. a private military coup is not unrealistic today.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Amen Amen
Amen Amen
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
he worked for and …
he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler’s rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
files in the US …
files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his company’s assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
George Bush’s …
George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
funny how the right …
funny how the right wing hasnt changed ideology
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Wow, this is …
Wow, this is definitey interesting and the storyline sounds so familiar….
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
“To an empire built …
“To an empire built on lies… The truth is treason” Ron Paul
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
Actually The Great …
Actually The Great Depression WAS CAUSED by the BANKS & all the rich fucks-Morgan-Pierrpont-etc.
June 9th, 2010 at 9:22 am
No, it was caused …
No, it was caused by risky business practices.
Obviously this conspiracy was their response to the increased regulations and laws which would hurt their businesses. Fascism is just an easy way to run shit. Get an army and say “Do what we want or we’ll shoot you.”
I’m just starting to learn about this conspiracy, and it’s pretty interesting.