Butler's role in the coup was to confront FDR with an ultimatum: either pretend to become incapacitated from polio and create a "Secretary of General Affairs" (carrying out orders from Wall Street) or be forced out by Butler's army. Because of the businessmen's media control, an entire fabricated campaign would work: the presidents failing health, his resignation, and the legitimacy of the newly created Secretary position.
In 1933, the plot was foiled when Butler testified to the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, which would later become the notorious House of Un-American Activities Committee, which white-washed the report and erased the names of many powerful businessmen from its records. Not surprisingly, the elite controlled media also failed to pick up the report, and still today the incident remains not well known.
I think that is one of the most fascinating bits of history which I have heard yet. It seems to me that something like that should have been made more well known. We here over and over again all of the hero stories, and the great things FDR did while in office but we don't hear things like this much. I knew there were people who did not agree with his ideas but this is a lot more than a disagreement. What if that plan had worked, I wonder what the consequences would have been.
ReplyDeleteA very interesting nugget of American history. I wonder what happened to those businessmen after the plan failed and what FDR's reaction was, if he even knew about the plot.
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