The Plot to Take the White House

I have recently been reading about a former Marine Major General named Smedley Butler.
Colonel Mustang (USMC Ret'd) has written about General Butler.
From Wikipedia:
Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940) was a United States Marine Corps major general, the highest rank authorized at that time, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, in Central America and the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in World War I. Butler later became an outspoken critic of U.S. wars and their consequences. He also exposed an alleged plan to overthrow the U.S. government.

General Butler is somewhat widely known for his speech "War is a Racket" which has had various iterations and also was printed as a book.

The closing words of the speech were:
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

I thought of General Butler upon the announcement of the withdrawal from Syria, and the wisdom thereof. I am not a Rand Paul supporter, and I do see the value of an international posture of our military. I am suspect of some of our "entanglements".

Then I started reading "The Plot to Seize the White House". I got tired of the scanner errors in that on-line text and reformatted it as a pdf, you can download it here. You do not have to sign into DropBox.

The book, in short, describes a retired Marine General, immensely popular with veterans, being approached to address the American Legion and during that address to speak in favor of the gold standard, which FDR and the New Deal were threatening. The rationale was that the dropping of the gold standard would lead to inflation which would devalue the Veteran's Bonus promised to the veterans of WW1, to be paid in 1945.
This bonus was dear to General Butler, and he had been involved in a push to get it paid early so that veterans suffering poverty during the Great Depression would have some relief.

The book I referenced alleges that the American Legion had been founded and funded by wealthy benefactors to provide chapters that would become involved in strike-breaking and general anti-communist activities. There were many chapters of the American Legion nationwide as there were many veterans of that war recently discharged.

According to the book, and the congressional testimony it presents, General Butler was approached again, on numerous occasions, to eventually form a large group of veterans to march on Washington, and in some way facilitate the removal of FDR from active power and make the president a figurehead, leaving the day to day administration to a more business friendly "Secretary" to be named. Some have suggested a candidate was Prescott Bush, father of George H.W. Bush.
Many people at the time were enamored of the fascist ideal as represented by Mussolini and Hitler, both very popular international leaders. It seems the plotters hoped to replicate that fascism here.

The plot is outlined in the book.

While this might seem far-fetched, I was reminded of the movie Meet John Doe.
The full movie is available on YouTube as seen below.
The link below starts with the introduction of publisher D.B. Norton who is behind a movement of "the little guy" the John Does of the nation.
Norton hopes to ride into political power (the presidency) on the tails of this organization he is building. The scene that I have the clip below set to start at shows him overseeing a demonstration of his motorcycle cadre. This scene always intrigued me as it seemed rather fascist in it's nature.
Looking back, I think that was Frank Capra's intent.
I think he was inspired by the Butler story in making this movie, the John Doe Society being a representation of the veterans groups that Butler was supposed to muster, just as Gary Cooper was to rally the Does.
Funny thing is, I kept seeing Gary Cooper as General Butler while reading the book.

Some say that the plot was the inspiration for the movie "Seven Days in May" which, some of you may know, is about a plot of a general (Burt Lancaster) to lead a coup.

I know that when Obama was president, and all seemed lost, I hoped for a coup.
It's interesting that Obama was actively purging anyone on the general staff would might oppose him.
In retrospect, I'm quite glad it never happened as it's legitimacy would always be questioned (Franco of Spain) and we would not have gotten Trump.

We are now witness to another attempted coup, the "soft coup" of the attempt to remove Trump from power, albeit by "legal" methodology. Mueller, "Impeach 45!", the Soviet Style Media, etc.

I'll admit (especially since my earlier posts on the matter are still available) that previously I was initially opposed to Trump. I suspected him to be a D.B. Norton, a fascist.
I could not have been further from the truth.
It is the fascist left who hope to overthrow him and, with him, our personal liberties.

Anyways, I suggest you enjoy the movie. and keep the above in mind.

Please let me know what you think.