Business Plot
In 1934, retired Marine major general Smedley Butler told a House committee that an intermediary had approached him about using veterans to pressure President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Smedley Butler said bond salesman Gerald MacGuire first approached him in 1933 about speaking to the American Legion on monetary policy. Butler told the committee that later conversations took a different turn. In his account, MacGuire wanted a veterans’ organization that could put pressure on Roosevelt and saw Butler as someone veterans would follow.
Butler testified in November 1934. Journalist Paul Comly French also told the committee about a conversation he had with MacGuire. MacGuire denied the central allegations.
The House committee reported in February 1935 that it had verified some of Butler’s statements and found evidence that plans for a fascist organization had been discussed. Its report did not establish that an attempt to seize power was imminent or that the prominent financiers associated with the story in later accounts had backed it.
Bibliography:
- U.S. House of Representatives. (1935, February 15). Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States. H. Rept. 74-153.