70 Facts About Smedley Butler

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, nicknamed the Maverick Marine, was a senior United States Marine Corps officer.

In 1933, he became involved in a controversy known as the Business Plot, when he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy industrialists were planning a military coup to overthrow President Franklin D Roosevelt, with Butler selected to lead a march of veterans to become dictator, similar to fascist regimes at that time.

Smedley Butler later became an outspoken critic of American wars and their consequences.

In 1935, Smedley Butler wrote the book War Is a Racket, where he alleged imperialist motivations for US foreign policy and wars.

Smedley Darlington Butler was born July 30,1881, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three sons.

Smedley Butler attended the West Chester Friends Graded High School, followed by The Haverford School, a Quaker-affiliated secondary school, popular with sons of upper-class Philadelphia families.

Smedley Butler became captain of the school baseball team and quarterback of its football team.

Smedley Butler's transcript stated that he completed the scientific course "with Credit".

Smedley Butler trained at Marine Barracks, Washington, DC In July 1898, he went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, arriving shortly after its invasion and capture.

Smedley Butler came home to be mustered out of service in February 1899, but on April 8,1899, he accepted a commission as a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

On garrison duty with little to do, Smedley Butler turned to alcohol to relieve the boredom.

Smedley Butler once became drunk and was temporarily relieved of command after an unspecified incident in his room.

Smedley Butler briefly panicked, but he quickly regained his composure and led his Marines in pursuit of the fleeing enemy.

Smedley Butler met Littleton Waller, a fellow Marine with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship.

Once in China, Smedley Butler was initially deployed at Tianjin.

Smedley Butler took part in the Battle of Tientsin on July 13,1900, and in the subsequent Gaselee Expedition, during which he saw the mutilated remains of Japanese soldiers.

Smedley Butler was eligible for the Marine Corps Brevet Medal when it was created in 1921, and was one of only 20 Marines to receive it.

On 28 March 1901, First Lieutenant Smedley Butler is appointed Captain by brevet, to take rank from 13 July 1900.

Smedley Butler participated in a series of occupations, "police actions" and interventions by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean, later called the Banana Wars because their goal was to protect American commercial interests in the region, particularly those of the United Fruit Company.

In 1903, Smedley Butler was stationed in Puerto Rico on Culebra Island.

At the sight of the Marines, the fighting ceased, and Smedley Butler led a detachment of Marines to the American consulate, where he found the consul, wrapped in an American flag, hiding among the floor beams.

Smedley Butler married Ethel Conway Peters of Philadelphia, a daughter of civil engineer and railroad executive Richard Peters, on June 30,1905.

Smedley Butler was next assigned to garrison duty in the Philippines, where he once launched a resupply mission across the stormy waters of Subic Bay after his isolated outpost ran out of rations.

Smedley Butler successfully managed a coal mine in West Virginia, but returned to active duty in the Marine Corps at the first opportunity.

From 1909 to 1912, Smedley Butler served in Nicaragua, enforcing US policy.

Smedley Butler remained in Nicaragua until November 1912, when he rejoined the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines at Camp Elliott, Panama.

In private Smedley Butler was highly critical of the operation, writing to his parents:.

Smedley Butler did not like leaving his family and the home they had established in Panama and intended to request orders home as soon as he determined he was not needed.

Fletcher's plan required Smedley Butler to make his way into the country and develop a more-detailed invasion plan while inside its borders.

Smedley Butler made his way to the US Consulate in Mexico City, posing as a railroad official named "Mr Johnson".

Major Smedley Butler was eminent and conspicuous in command of his battalion.

Smedley Butler exhibited courage and skill in leading his men through the action of the 22d and in the final occupation of the city.

Smedley Butler reached the fort from the southern side with the 15th Company and found a small opening in the wall.

Once the medal was approved and presented in 1917, Smedley Butler achieved the distinction, shared with Dan Daly, of being the only Marines to receive the Medal of Honor twice for separate actions.

Connecticut, Major Smedley Butler led the attack on Fort Riviere, Haiti, 17 November 1915.

Subsequently, as the initial organizer and commanding officer of the Gendarmerie d'Haiti, Smedley Butler established a record as a capable administrator.

Smedley Butler made several requests for a posting in France, writing letters to his personal friend, Wendell Cushing Neville.

Smedley Butler later described how Butler tackled the sanitation problems.

Smedley Butler commanded with ability and energy Camp Pontanezen at Brest during the time in which it has developed into the largest embarkation camp in the world.

Smedley Butler directed the Quantico camp's growth until it became the "showplace" of the Corps.

Smedley Butler later replaced the wooden box with a metal one and reburied the arm.

Smedley Butler left a plaque on the granite monument marking the burial place of Jackson's arm; the plaque is no longer on the marker, but it can be viewed at the Chancellorsville Battlefield visitor's center.

Smedley Butler began his new job by assembling all 4,000 of the city police into the Metropolitan Opera House in shifts to introduce himself and inform them that things would change while he was in charge.

Some even suggested that Smedley Butler was acting like a military dictator, even charging that he wrongfully used active-duty Marines in some of his raids.

Smedley Butler announced that "great progress" had been made in the city, and he attributed that success to Butler.

Not all of the citizens felt that Smedley Butler was doing a bad job, though, and when the news started to leak that he would be leaving, people began to gather at the Academy of Music.

Smedley Butler devoted much of his second year to executing arrest warrants, cracking down on crooked police, and enforcing prohibition.

Smedley Butler received orders to report to San Diego and prepared his family and his belongings for the new assignment.

From 1927 to 1929 Smedley Butler was commander of a Marine Expeditionary Force in Tianjin, China,.

In 1931 Smedley Butler violated diplomatic norms by publicly recounting gossip about Benito Mussolini in which the dictator allegedly struck and killed a child with his speeding automobile in a hit-and-run accident.

The Italian government protested and President Hoover, who strongly disliked Smedley Butler, forced Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams III to court-martial him.

Smedley Butler became the first general officer to be placed under arrest since the Civil War.

Smedley Butler apologized to Secretary Adams and the court-martial was canceled with only a reprimand.

Smedley Butler requested retirement and left active duty on October 1,1931.

Smedley Butler began lecturing at events and conferences, and after his retirement from the Marines in 1931 he took this up full time.

Smedley Butler donated much of his earnings from his lucrative lecture circuits to the Philadelphia unemployment relief.

Smedley Butler toured the western United States, making 60 speeches before returning for his daughter's marriage to Marine aviator Lt.

Smedley Butler's wedding was the only time he wore his dress blue uniform after he left the Marines.

Smedley Butler announced his candidacy for the US Senate in the Republican primary in Pennsylvania in March 1932 as a proponent of Prohibition, known as a "dry".

Smedley Butler voted for Norman Thomas of the Socialist Party for president in 1936.

Smedley Butler walked through the camp and spoke to the veterans; he told them that they were fine soldiers and they had a right to lobby Congress just as much as any corporation.

Smedley Butler instructed them to keep their sense of humor and cautioned them not to do anything that would cost public sympathy.

In December 1933, Butler toured the country with James E Van Zandt to recruit members for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

In November 1934, Smedley Butler claimed the existence of a political conspiracy by business leaders to overthrow President Roosevelt, a series of allegations that came to be known in the media as the Business Plot.

In November 1934, Butler told the committee that one Gerald P MacGuire told him that a group of businessmen, supposedly backed by a private army of 500,000 ex-soldiers and others, intended to establish a fascist dictatorship.

Smedley Butler told Congress that MacGuire had told him the attempted coup was backed by three million dollars, and that the 500,000 men were probably to be assembled in Washington, DC the following year.

Smedley Butler's doctor described his illness as an incurable condition of the upper gastro-intestinal tract that was probably cancer.

Smedley Butler's family remained by his side, even bringing his new car so he could see it from the window.

On June 21,1940, Smedley Butler died at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia.

Smedley Butler was buried at Oaklands Cemetery in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania.