Month: May 2014

Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940) was a Major
General in the U.S. Marine Corps (the highest rank authorized at that
time), an outspoken critic of U.S. military adventurism, 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.

By the end of his career, he had received 16 medals, five for heroism.
He is one of 19 men to twice receive the Medal of Honor, one of three to
be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor,
and the only marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of
Honor, all for separate actions. In his 1935 book War is a Racket, he
described the workings of the military-industrial complex and, after
retiring from service, became a popular speaker at meetings organized by
veterans, pacifists and church groups in the 1930s.

He became widely known for his outspoken lectures against war
profiteering, U.S. military adventurism, and what he viewed as nascent
fascism in the United States. In December 1933, Butler toured the
country with James E. Van Zandt to recruit members for the Veterans of
Foreign Wars (VFW). He described their effort as “trying to educate the
soldiers out of the sucker class.” The VFW reprinted one of his speeches
with the title “You Got to Get Mad” in its magazine Foreign Service. He
said: “I believe in…taking Wall St. by the throat and shaking it up.”

In addition to his speeches to pacifist groups, he served from 1935 to
1937 as a spokesman for the American League Against War and Fascism. In
1935 he wrote the exposé War Is a Racket, a trenchant condemnation of
the profit motive behind warfare. His views on the subject are
summarized in the following passage from a 1935 issue of the socialist
magazine Common Sense:

“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.” (why we fight)