The Plot To Seize the White House
Archer, Jules 1969 NON-FICTION

Excerpt from dust jacket flap:

"Americans can no longer be shocked by the discovery that Information directly affecting their personal freedom Is withheld from news media to protect persons with governmental Influence. But it still comes as a shocking revelation that in 1933 there was an actual attempt to make a fascist puppet of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Now, more than forty years later, the public still remains ignorant of the story behind "THE PLOT TO SEIZE THE WHITE HOUSE." The fact that the plot was a failure and our present government is still a democracy, directly attributable to Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, one of the most remarkable generals In American history.

A veteran of 35 years in the Marine Corps and a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Butler finally decided that "war is a racket!" His reputation for patriotism, integrity, and dedication to democracy, coupled with his proclivity to speak the truth as he saw It irrespective of official policy, made him a seemingly perfect front for the men Who hated Roosevelt.

They were people with determination, if it were impossible to replace the president, to manipulate him through the person of an American Mussolini. Their short-sightedness prevented their realizing that Butler was obviously the wrong choice for the Job.

Jules Archer quotes testimony from the McCormack-Dickstein House Committee on Un-'Amerlcan Activities hearings (including testimony that was subsequently censored from public record) that details how Butler was approached by representatives of arch-conservative American Liberty League; how they tried to persuade him to lead an army of veterans in demonstration against Roosevelt's Silver standard; how Butler quickly concluded that the silver standard Controversy was being used as a subterfuge to lead American veterans against Washington for truly sinister purposes; and how this hero, patriot, and Republican democrat, upon uncovering the full dimensions of the conspiracy, determined to go to Washington and blow it wide open.

John L Spivak, a reporter assigned to cover the committee hearings, calls the story "one of the most fantastic plots in American history What was behind the plot was shrouded in a silence which has not been broken to this day.

Even a generation later, those who are still alive and know all the facts have kept their silence so well that the conspiracy is not even a footnote in American histories.

It would be regrettable if historians neglected this episode and future generations of Americans never learned of it."

[---Born in New York City, Jules Archer is a graduate of City College of New York. During World War II he served four years in the Pacific with the Army Air Corps and was also a freelance correspondent by order of General MacArthur. He is the author of many books on political events and personalities...]

MORE:

Coup D'Etat In America

How the ruling class plotted to overthrow FDR.
Excerpt:
"Two members of the American Legion—Gerald C. MacGuire and Bill Doyle—paid a visit to Butler. MacGuire, a bond salesman for a Morgan firm, invited the general to address a Legion convention. They hoped that the members would rally to Butler and help them oust the veterans group’s current slate of leaders. Butler declined, but the pair returned. This time they brought a bank book showing over $100,000 in deposits ... his organization’s top men were Singer sewing machine heir Robert Sterling Clark (also affiliated with Sun Oil) and brokerage house owner Grayson M.P. Murphy, a director of Guaranty Trust (a bank owned by Morgan), who also had interests in Goodyear, Bethlehem Steel and Anaconda Copper.... It wanted Butler to lead an insurrectionist army of 500,000 veterans in a march on Washington. President Roosevelt would be forced to resign, or perhaps just be kept on as a figurehead. FDR would have to appoint a 'Secretary of General Affairs'..."

Fascism Part II: The Rise of American Fascism
Excerpt:

In 1931 Major General Smedley Butler publicly relayed a story about Mussolini, apparently told to him by Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr., in which Mr. Vanderbilt was riding with Mussolini and Mussolini hit a child with his car but kept on going and refused to stop. Butler's public telling of the story caused international outrage and Butler was then arrested, court-martialed by Secretary of War Stimson and told to apologize to Mussolini. Butler refused, deciding instead to retire. Nevertheless this illustrates the degree to which Mussolini and fascism were respected in America at the time.
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"What is History,' said Napoleon, 'but a fable agreed upon' - Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1848
"A Scottish philosopher once said that history is a set of lies agreed upon." - Enos Abijah Mills - 1920
"Napoleon said history is a set of lies agreed upon" - Modern day authors
"The exact contrary of what is generally believed is often the truth." - Jean de La Bruyère
Napoleon said none of the above. Tell me, what did Napoleon actually say about history?

Yeah..I don't think many American's are familiar with the cozy relationship that U.S. financiers and industrialists had with the Nazis during the 30's and even during the war and how the Fascist business model was revered. I mean Hitler was on the cover of Time as the "Man of the Year" as a result of his economic exploits in Germany. People cheered the Hindenburg as it traversed the U.S. skies with a huge swastika emblazoned on it's fin. IBM even did business with the Nazis during the war helping them tabulate how many Jews they exterminated and so did Coca Cola which created an offshoot European subsidiary called Fanta that still exists today. This, of course, is all a matter of public record for those who wish to do the research .

The biggest dirty little secret, of course, was Dubya's grandpappy Prescott Bush who was one of the directors of Union Banking Corp which helped bankroll Hitler's rise to power and was seized by the Federal government in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Even Fox news covered this. Apparently, Prescott Bush was rumored to be one of the supporters of the FDR coup that Butler exposed. Indeed, George Walker was offered up to the War effort to shore up the Bush family name after the Bush name was soiled...The Bush's of course continue to mix business with politics to this day much to the detriment of the country....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,100474,00.html


Mussolini was also revered and was good for "business" in Italy. He of course made the trains run on time and was having a grand ole time in Abbasynia gassing 'spear chuckers.'

The Great Depression gave rise to a host of demagogues in Europe and the U.S. was not immune. FDR was essentially forced "left" by populists such as Huey Long and to some extent Father Coughlin until he got "wacky." While Europe went Fascist the U.S. decided to make a social contract with it's people. Of course, it really was the war that pulled us out of the depression in the long run. Back then we were fighting totalitarianism..today is another matter. Not sure what path we'll take in the ensuing years since we have seemed to have lost our "way". Sinclair Lewis' book "It can't Happen Here" was a great work at the time and almost prescient. It (Fascism) almost did happen here and the specter remains today...

There is a good piece in the NYT about FDR and the influences of Long and Coughlin . I see many parallels with the current political discourse.. I expect demagoguery and scapegoating to pick up speed if the economy doesn't just 'come on' as Bush has promised...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...=&pagewanted=2

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." ~Voltaire

So how did that go?

One has to realize, of course, that in 1933 the atrocities committed by Hitler weren't known and thsoe atrocities weren't associated with fascism...a cousin of socialism. FDR himself was a demogogue who admired Stalin throughout his presidency. Let's also make it clear that Morgan, as in JP, was long dead by this time.the 'isms" amd the cult of personality of the time were what gave rise to Orwell's book 1984.

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