Source/Explanation From Original OP:
https://connecticuthistory.org/gerald-macguire-and-the-plot-to-overthrow-franklin-roosevelt/
Author: Piascik (2022)
In 1933, retired Marine Corps General Smedley Butler was visited at his Pennsylvania home by individuals from the American Legion to discuss upcoming Legion elections. Butler was one of the best-known military men in the country at the time. According to Butler, the visitors came with ulterior motives and chose to meet with him because of his reputation for being popular with everyday soldiers.
Among the visitors was Gerald MacGuire, the Legion’s Connecticut commander. MacGuire was born in Rhode Island on May 10, 1897, served in the First World War, settled in Darien, and worked at a prominent Wall Street brokerage house. He and many of the moneyed men he worked with felt alarm at the proposed policies of Franklin Roosevelt, the country’s new president. According to testimony Butler later gave to Congress, MacGuire said he had large sums of money at his disposal to bankroll a run by Butler for the Legion’s top post.
Butler told the story of what became known as the Business Plot to Paul Comly French, a reporter for the Philadelphia Record. When contacted by French, MacGuire spoke openly about the plot and of his desire for a fascist America. He steered the reporter to some of his associates and French wrote an expose that appeared in both the Record and the New York Post. Butler, meanwhile, finally told MacGuire his true feelings about the plan: “If you get 500,000 soldiers advocating anything smelling of Fascism, I am going to get 500,000 more and lick the hell out of you, and we will have a real war right at home.”
Fun tangent about the whole thing (lazily copied from the English wiki article about the whole thing):
In July 2007, a BBC investigation reported that Prescott Bush, father of U.S. President George H. W. Bush and grandfather of then-president George W. Bush, was to have been a “key liaison” between the 1933 Business Plotters and the newly emerged Nazi regime in Germany.[53] This has been disputed by Jonathan Katz as a misconception caused by a clerical research error.[54] According to Katz, “Prescott Bush was too involved with the actual Nazis to be involved with something that was so home grown as the Business Plot.”[55]
This has been disputed by Jonathan Katz as a misconception caused by a clerical research error.[54] According to Katz, “Prescott Bush was too involved with the actual Nazis to be involved with something that was so home grown as the Business Plot."
That’s the sickest exoneration by burn I’ve seen in a long time
I didn’t know that, but I am not surprised. For some reason, I feel like the Bush clan being involved with Nazis fits like an arse onto a bucket.
Smedley Butler wasn’t in the army, he was in the marine corps.
I assume this is one of those cases where people treat “army” as synonymous with “military”.
Might be a foreign language thing, since some languages colloquially shorten their equivalent of “armed forces” to “army”. French, for example, differentiates between “Army of the land” (Armée de terre) and “Army of the air” (Armée de l’air), making the base term “Army” just a generic descriptor.
Might also be genuine error though.
