In July 1933, two mysterious men approached one of the most decorated soldiers in American history with what initially appeared to be a simple proposal. He didn’t know it at the time, but Major General Smedley Butler, whose prominent career mirrored the rise of the American Empire, was being recruited into a sordid plan to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt, and bring fascism to the United States. In this episode, take a deep look at the rise and expansion of Imperial America, and the time we came within a hair’s breadth of losing democracy.

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Sources and Further Reading

Books

The Plot to Seize the White House, by Jules Archer: Link

Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire, by Jonathan Katz: Link

Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History: Link

Websites

McKinley and the Spanish-American War: Link

The Signaling at Cuzco Well: Link

Marine Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Huntington to Marine Colonel Charles Heywood, 6/17/1898: Link

Battle of Manila Bay, 1 May 1898: Link

Theodore Roosevelt, “The Strenuous Life” (10 April 1899): Link

Theodore Roosevelt: Confident Imperialist: Link

Review: Not so Benevolent Assimilation: The Philippine-American War: Link

McKinley's Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation: Link

The Insular Cases: A Comparative Historical Study of Puerto Rico, Hawai‘i, and the Philippines: Link

ASKS GEN. BUTLER TO EXPLAIN SPEECH; Secretary Adams Calls for a Full Report on His References to Nicaraguan Policy. NAVY OFFICIALS SILENT Stimson Also Refuses Comment on the General's Reputed Remarks at Pittsburgh Dec. 5.: Link

Mark Twain, To the Person Sitting in Darkness: Link

Gunboat USS Petrel: Link

Gunboat Callao: Link

The Opium Wars in China: Link

Yellow River Floods, Los Angeles Herald, Volume 26, Number 48, 17 November 1898: Link

Great Flood of the Huang-Ho River: Link

Wilhelm II: "Hun Speech" (1900): Link

Mahan, a “Place in the Sun,” and Germany's Quest for Sea Power: Link

The Liscum Bowl: Link

General Jacob H. Smith & the Philippine War’s Samar Campaign: Link

The Water Cure: Link

The Lobby- The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914: Link

Hepburn Suspects a Plot to Delay Building Canal: Link

Bunau-Varilla, Russia, and the Panama Canal: Link

The Strange Affair of the Taking of the Panama Canal Zone: Link

USS Nashville (PG 7) and the Building of the Panama Canal: Link

A Roundtable on John M. Thompson, Great Power Rising: Theodore Roosevelt and the Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy: Link

The New Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation: Link

Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907-1908: Link

Hemispheric Orientalism and the 1907 Pacific Coast Race Riots: Link

Museum of the City of San Francisco, Japanese and Korean Exclusion League- 1906: Link

Merchants, Mining, and Concessions on Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast: Reassessing the American Presence, 1893-1912: Link

American Policy in Nicaragua- Dawson Agreements—Brown Brothers Loan: Link

A Note on the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty and German Interest in a Nicaraguan Canal, 1914: Link

Riot at Cocoa Grove, Panama City, July 4, 1912: Link

The Wilson Administration and Panama, 1913-1921: Link

The Minister of the Netherlands to the Secretary of State- Determining Indemnities Owed to the United States by Panama: Link

CANAL IS OPENED BY WILSON'S FINGER; Gamboa Dike Blown Away as President in Washington Presses Button.: Link

U.S. ambassador plots against Mexican president, Feb. 16, 1913: Link

Henry Lane Wilson and the Overthrow of Madero: Link

El Porfiriato (1877-1911): Link

The structural evolution of the Golden Lane, Tampico embayment, Mexico: Link

Oil and Revolution in Mexico- Chapter 2: The Great Mexican Oil Boom: Link

Mr. De In Mexico: Link

Address to a Joint Session of Congress on the Tampico Incident: Link

April 20, 1914: Message Regarding Tampico Incident: Link

TWE Remembers: The Tampico Incident: Link

The Banana Wars: United States Intervention in the Caribbean, 1898–1934: Link

'Take Veracruz at Once'- USNI: Link

The Battle of Veracruz and the Medal of Honor: Link

How the U.S. Came to Dominate Haiti: Seizing the Gold: Link

Invade Haiti, Wall Street Urged. The U.S. Obliged.: Link

'The Greatest Heist In History': How Haiti Was Forced To Pay Reparations For Freedom: Link

How the U.S. Came to Dominate Haiti: Military Occupation: Link

HAITI, SMEDLEY BUTLER, AND THE RISE OF AMERICAN EMPIRE: Link

Freedom and Sovereignty: Notes on 1826 Haitian Rural Code: Link

The U.S. Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934: Link

Americans and Chinese Communists, 1927–1945: A Persuading Encounter: Link

1927: 'China Marines' in Shanghai (photo): Link

Smedley D. Butler and Prohibition Enforcement in Philadelphia, 1924-1925: Link

The Machine, the Mayor, and the Marine:The Battle over Prohibition in Philadelphia, 1924–1925: Link

General Butler Cleans Up: Link

BUTLER NEAR BLOWS WITH A MAGISTRATE; Former Wants Philadelphia Ritz-Carlten Patrons to Tell About Liquor Seizure.: Link

An Alternative to Kuomintang—Communist Collaboration: Sun Yat-sen and Hong Kong, January–June 1923: Link

The Nationalist Party in Power: Unification of China Under Kuomintang Programs: Link

The Birth of Communist Party and Soviet Constitution between China and Hungary: Link

Soviet Diplomacy and the First United Front in China: Link

Before and After the May Fourth Movement: Link

Principles and Profits: Standard Oil Responds to Chinese Nationalism, 1925-1927: Link

SS PRESIDENT MCKINLEY Painting: Link

December 7, 1929, Buffalo Courier-Express, Author Asks for Senate Quiz of Butler's Speech; Sinclair Lewis says general confirmed charges against marines in Haiti, Nicaragua: Link

A Mussolini Alfa Romeo Mystery: Link

Interview with E.Z. Dimitman, June 23, 1982: Link

Bonus Army- Oregon Encyclopedia: Link

Walter W. Waters, Commander of the Bonus Expeditionary Force: Link

Fox Movietone News Collection- Butler addresses demonstration--outtakes: Link

Smedley Butler’s fiery speech to World War I veterans is still relevant today: Link

Bonus Expeditionary Forces March on Washington- National Park Service: Link

Zangara's Attempted Assassination of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Link

Roosevelt's Gold Program: Link

War Is A Racket (1935) Full Text: Link

The American Legion 15th National Convention: official program, 1933: Link

He Put the Funds in Our Foundation: How Robert Sterling Clark Got His Money: Link

“Every Citizen a Sentinel! Every Home a Sentry Box!” The Sentinels of the Republic and the Gendered Origins of Free-Market Conservatism: Link

Gerald L. K. Smith: Minister of Hate: Link

The National Committee to Uphold Constitutional Government, 1937-1941: Link

The Nye Revelations: Link

FDR and the Nye Committee: A Reassessment: Link

Frantz Fanon, Concerning Violence: Link