American Fascism: Bankers & the American Legion
Franklin Delano Roosevelt vs. the Banks:
Morgan's Fascist Plot, and How It Was Defeated
Part II (an excerpt follows; full article)
by L. Wolfe
Printed in The American Almanac, July 4, 1994
It was becoming increasingly obvious to Butler and many others that the American Legion was a stooge of these fascist bankers. As early as 1923, the legion's Commander in Chief Alvin Owsley, had openly embraced Mussolini, and endorsed fascism as a viable policy for the United States. Having done that, he announced that the legion was, if necessary, prepared to kick out the elected government of the United States and back anyone who would follow a policy of "Americanism."
"If ever needed," he stated, "the American Legion stands ready to protect our country's institutions and ideals as the Fascisti dealt with the destructionists who menaced Italy."
Asked if this meant taking over the government, he stated: "Exactly that. The American Legion is fighting every element that threatens our democratic government--soviets, anarchists, I.W.W., revolutionary socialists and every other red.... Do not forget that the Fascisti are to Italy what the American Legion is to the United States."
In late March 1931, National Commander Ralph T. O'Neill presented Italian Ambassador de Martino, the same person who had made the formal demand for satisfaction over Butler's remarks, with a copy of a resolution passed by the American Legion's National Executive Committee praising Mussolini as a great leader. Meanwhile, the Legion's leadership, heavily intermeshed with the Freemasonic movement, propagandized against the "non-Aryan" pollution of the American stock, repeating the racialist garbage of the eugenics movement. They argued for the end of immigration for all but the Anglo-Saxon races, claiming that the nation must protect itself against the threat of "communist" and "anarchist" infiltrators, and all other enemies of "Americanism."
Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, the legion was used as a recruiting base for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, with many of the southern legion branches run by and operating as Klan cells.
The so-called communist menace used to help organize a fascist counter-reaction was a bogeyman. The Communist Party, U.S.A. and its splinter groups, were effectively run by police agents, and other stooges, and were even funded by the bankers themselves, including Morgan. Many well-meaning people, upset with the effects of Anglo-American policy, wandered into these circles, only to have their actions rendered impotent by the overall control of these movements and their ideology.
Thus, both the "left" and the fascist and neo-fascist "right" were effectively British policy assets, to be used for whatever purposes the times required.
Butler, still the highest-ranking officer in the Marines, refused to retire, preferring to serve one more year. In August, he chose an address made before an American Legion convention in Connecticut to deliver perhaps the most remarkable speech ever given by a serving officer about the misuse of military power. "I have spent 33 years ... being a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism," Butler said.
He continued:
"I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City (Bank) boys to collect revenue in. I helped rape half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.... In China, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.... I had ... a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotions. I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate a racket in three cities. The Marines operated on three continents...."
To the dismay of the bankers who directed the legion, Butler's remarks were greeted with riotous applause. In Washington, Hoover refused to answer reporters' questions about the general's statements. The major press blacked out most of what Butler said, but the word leaked out in the regional press, and was spread through word of mouth.
Navy Secretary Adams demanded that someone silence Butler, but no one dared to say anything, especially after the Mussolini flap. Butler continued to hammer away on the theme that the American military was being deployed to collect bankers' debts and secure looting rights in foreign countries.
When Butler finally retired, he was no longer constrained in comments by military protocol. He now traveled the country, addressing anyone who would listen, attacking the bankers who controlled the deployment of the military.
On Dec. 5, 1931, an article under his byline appeared in Liberty Magazine, titled "To Hell with the Admirals! Why I Retired at 50." In it, Butler charged the leadership of the Navy with complicity in policies that now revolted him and in working to try to prevent his promotion and ultimately, to silence him. He attacked a number of Central American leaders as Wall Street stooges, naming again Brown Brothers and Morgan. In Honduras, the government-controlled press showered him with epithets and demanded that he be silenced. In the U.S.A., the Navy had a plaque that had been erected in his honor removed from the Navy Building.
In the spring of 1932, the bankers moved preemptively to prevent Butler from becoming a political force. Gifford Pinchot, the governor of Pennsylvania and a member of a banking family, lured Butler into seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate against James Davis, a Morgan private-list member, who was Hoover's secretary of labor. Butler stumped the state, and held true to his promise to campaign in GOP wards for two issues which the party did not support--an end to Prohibition and the passage of the soliders' bonus bill that would pay their bonuses due in 1945, now. To ensure Butler's defeat, Pinchot ordered his machine at the last minute to work for Davis.
Read Part II in full.
Read Part I in full.
Morgan's Fascist Plot, and How It Was Defeated
Part II (an excerpt follows; full article)
by L. Wolfe
Printed in The American Almanac, July 4, 1994
It was becoming increasingly obvious to Butler and many others that the American Legion was a stooge of these fascist bankers. As early as 1923, the legion's Commander in Chief Alvin Owsley, had openly embraced Mussolini, and endorsed fascism as a viable policy for the United States. Having done that, he announced that the legion was, if necessary, prepared to kick out the elected government of the United States and back anyone who would follow a policy of "Americanism."
"If ever needed," he stated, "the American Legion stands ready to protect our country's institutions and ideals as the Fascisti dealt with the destructionists who menaced Italy."
Asked if this meant taking over the government, he stated: "Exactly that. The American Legion is fighting every element that threatens our democratic government--soviets, anarchists, I.W.W., revolutionary socialists and every other red.... Do not forget that the Fascisti are to Italy what the American Legion is to the United States."
In late March 1931, National Commander Ralph T. O'Neill presented Italian Ambassador de Martino, the same person who had made the formal demand for satisfaction over Butler's remarks, with a copy of a resolution passed by the American Legion's National Executive Committee praising Mussolini as a great leader. Meanwhile, the Legion's leadership, heavily intermeshed with the Freemasonic movement, propagandized against the "non-Aryan" pollution of the American stock, repeating the racialist garbage of the eugenics movement. They argued for the end of immigration for all but the Anglo-Saxon races, claiming that the nation must protect itself against the threat of "communist" and "anarchist" infiltrators, and all other enemies of "Americanism."
Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, the legion was used as a recruiting base for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, with many of the southern legion branches run by and operating as Klan cells.
The so-called communist menace used to help organize a fascist counter-reaction was a bogeyman. The Communist Party, U.S.A. and its splinter groups, were effectively run by police agents, and other stooges, and were even funded by the bankers themselves, including Morgan. Many well-meaning people, upset with the effects of Anglo-American policy, wandered into these circles, only to have their actions rendered impotent by the overall control of these movements and their ideology.
Thus, both the "left" and the fascist and neo-fascist "right" were effectively British policy assets, to be used for whatever purposes the times required.
Butler, still the highest-ranking officer in the Marines, refused to retire, preferring to serve one more year. In August, he chose an address made before an American Legion convention in Connecticut to deliver perhaps the most remarkable speech ever given by a serving officer about the misuse of military power. "I have spent 33 years ... being a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism," Butler said.
He continued:
"I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City (Bank) boys to collect revenue in. I helped rape half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street.... In China, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.... I had ... a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotions. I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was operate a racket in three cities. The Marines operated on three continents...."
To the dismay of the bankers who directed the legion, Butler's remarks were greeted with riotous applause. In Washington, Hoover refused to answer reporters' questions about the general's statements. The major press blacked out most of what Butler said, but the word leaked out in the regional press, and was spread through word of mouth.
Navy Secretary Adams demanded that someone silence Butler, but no one dared to say anything, especially after the Mussolini flap. Butler continued to hammer away on the theme that the American military was being deployed to collect bankers' debts and secure looting rights in foreign countries.
When Butler finally retired, he was no longer constrained in comments by military protocol. He now traveled the country, addressing anyone who would listen, attacking the bankers who controlled the deployment of the military.
On Dec. 5, 1931, an article under his byline appeared in Liberty Magazine, titled "To Hell with the Admirals! Why I Retired at 50." In it, Butler charged the leadership of the Navy with complicity in policies that now revolted him and in working to try to prevent his promotion and ultimately, to silence him. He attacked a number of Central American leaders as Wall Street stooges, naming again Brown Brothers and Morgan. In Honduras, the government-controlled press showered him with epithets and demanded that he be silenced. In the U.S.A., the Navy had a plaque that had been erected in his honor removed from the Navy Building.
In the spring of 1932, the bankers moved preemptively to prevent Butler from becoming a political force. Gifford Pinchot, the governor of Pennsylvania and a member of a banking family, lured Butler into seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate against James Davis, a Morgan private-list member, who was Hoover's secretary of labor. Butler stumped the state, and held true to his promise to campaign in GOP wards for two issues which the party did not support--an end to Prohibition and the passage of the soliders' bonus bill that would pay their bonuses due in 1945, now. To ensure Butler's defeat, Pinchot ordered his machine at the last minute to work for Davis.
Read Part II in full.
Read Part I in full.
posted by Sean M. Madden at
12:09 PM
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