This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Cigor (talk | contribs) at 21:59, 28 June 2005 (→Prelude). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 21:59, 28 June 2005 by Cigor (talk | contribs) (→Prelude)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Business Plot or the The Plot Against FDR was a conspiracy against President Franklin D. Roosevelt by a group of millionaire businessmen, led by the Du Pont and J. P. Morgan empires. Alarmed by the President's plan to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, they plotted to overthrow Roosevelt with a military coup and install a fascist government. The businessmen tried to recruit General Smedley Butler, promising him an army of 500,000, unlimited financial backing and generous media spin control. The plot was foiled when Butler reported it to Congress.
Prelude
By 1932, capitalism and democracy for many seemed to be grasping the last breath. The stock market plummeted 80% than its peak. GNP has also fallen 31 % since 1929. Unemployment rose to 23.6 percent. The banking system seemed to be on the point of collapse. As response to that president Roosevelt started his New Deal program. Government started to implement heavy spending. To fund this spending in part the top tax rate it hiked from 25 to 63 %. This alarmed many members of the business establishment which saw this as a massive redistribution of their wealth to the poor. In addition, there were doubts that even this will prevent the obvious breakdown of the capitalist system and leading to a rapid transformation into socialism or communism. The answer for some of them was fascist coup.
Participants
The plot included some of America's richest and most famous names of the time:
- Irénée du Pont - Right-wing chemical industrialist and founder of the American Liberty League, the organization assigned to execute the plot.
- Grayson Murphy - Director of Goodyear, Bethlehem Steel and a group of J. P. Morgan banks.
- William Doyle - Former state commander of the American Legion and a central plotter of the coup.
- John Davis - Former Democratic presidential candidate and a senior attorney for J. P. Morgan.
- Al Smith - Roosevelt's bitter political foe from New York. Smith was a former governor of New York and a codirector of the American Liberty League.
- John J. Raskob - A high-ranking DuPont officer and a former chairman of the Democratic Party.
- Robert Clark - One of Wall Street's richest bankers and stockbrokers.
- Gerald MacGuire - Bond salesman for Clark, and a former commander of the Connecticut American Legion. MacGuire was the key recruiter to General Butler.
The plan
General Smedley Butler was chosen to lead the coup. The plotters felt his good reputation and popularity was important to make the troops feel confident they were doing the right thing by overthrowing a democratically elected president. Initially other candidates were considered. MacGuire said "The Morgan interests say that you cannot be trusted, that you are too radical, and so forth, that you are too much on the side of the little fellow; you cannot be trusted. They are for Douglas MacArthur at the head of it.... They want either MacArthur or MacNider. They do not want you. But one group tells them that you are the only fellow in America who can get the soldiers together..." In a nutshell plotters wanted Roosevelt to be just nominal president while the real power would hold newly created super cabinet "Secretary of General Affairs". It would implement fascist measurements as those deemed to be the most efficient way to fight communism while preserving socio-economic status quo (as Clark told Butler that he would spend half his $60 million fortune to save the other half.) MacGuire assured Butler the cover story would work: "You know the American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign that the President's health is failing. Everyone can tell that by looking at him, and the dumb American people will fall for it in a second…" The businessmen also promised that money was no object: Clark told Butler that he would spend half his $60 million fortune to save the other half. In addition “ "He said , "You know, the President is weak. He will come right along with us. He was born in this class. He was raised in this class, and he will come back. He will run true to form. In the end he will come around. But we have got to be prepared to sustain him when he does.""
Breakdown
The plot was aborted when Butler went public. His testimony before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, which would later become the House Committee on Un-American Activities was largely ignored. The committee failed to call in any of the coup plotters for questioning, other than MacGuire. As John Spivak latter showed , the official version of the transcript had number of names of accused plotters deleted. The corporate controlled media managed to spin the story as nothing more than the rumors and hearsay of Butler, even though Butler was a man of great integrity. In a later interview with John Spivak, Dickstein stated that they hadn’t time or money to investigate the whole Wall Street group. He also said that he viewed “….Fascism as a last stand of capitalism... Powerful wealth is concentrating for its own preservation…”
Vindication
When journalist John Spivak uncovered the Committee's internal, secret report 1967, it clearly confirmed Butler's story
Sources
House Committee on Un-American Activities report part 1
House Committee on Un-American Activities report part 2
House Committee on Un-American Activities report part 3