Sayeret
03-04-2005, 10:39 PM
Can the US government be overthrown? A group tried in 1934.
Imagine the scenario: an army of 500,000 men, drawn from the ranks of the American Legion, marches to Washington and takes over the White House. The conspirators tell the world that President D. Roosevelt, because of poor health, needs help. A member of his cabinet takes over. This dictator then herds the unemployed into labor camps. All person are registered.
It might have happened. It was a plot. Who was behind the plot?
Why did it fail? Let’s backtrack.
In July 1933, Legionnaire Gerald C. MacGuire, a former marine, backed by Grayson M.P. Murphy, a stockbroker and director of Morgans’s Guaranty Trust Company, asked Major General Smedly D. Butler to make a speech in favor of restoring the gold standard at the upcoming American Legion convention. Butler, a Republican who had campaigned for Roosevelt, refused. He also declined similar requests made by MacGuire and financier Robert S. Clark.
Then the request changed. Butler was asked more than forty times to lead an army of legionnaires in a coup. MacGuire said that army would be financed by “private interests” and the $1 annual dues from Legion members. Meanwhile, the American Liberty League–affiliated with antilabor, profacist, and anti-Semitic groups—was formed. In it were Murphy, Clark, and representatives of the Du Pont, Rockefeller, and Mellon interests.
An alarmed Butler finally contacted reporter Paul Comly French, who found links among the American Liberty League, Wall Street, and those plotting against FDR. French’s newspaper articles exposed the plot.
In 1934, a congressional committee held hearings on the matter. Did the powerful Wall Street tycoons actively back the coup, or were they merely interested in reestablishing the gold standard? Much evidence was struck from the committee’s record as “hearsay”.We will probably never know the whole truth.
Significa by Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace.
Imagine the scenario: an army of 500,000 men, drawn from the ranks of the American Legion, marches to Washington and takes over the White House. The conspirators tell the world that President D. Roosevelt, because of poor health, needs help. A member of his cabinet takes over. This dictator then herds the unemployed into labor camps. All person are registered.
It might have happened. It was a plot. Who was behind the plot?
Why did it fail? Let’s backtrack.
In July 1933, Legionnaire Gerald C. MacGuire, a former marine, backed by Grayson M.P. Murphy, a stockbroker and director of Morgans’s Guaranty Trust Company, asked Major General Smedly D. Butler to make a speech in favor of restoring the gold standard at the upcoming American Legion convention. Butler, a Republican who had campaigned for Roosevelt, refused. He also declined similar requests made by MacGuire and financier Robert S. Clark.
Then the request changed. Butler was asked more than forty times to lead an army of legionnaires in a coup. MacGuire said that army would be financed by “private interests” and the $1 annual dues from Legion members. Meanwhile, the American Liberty League–affiliated with antilabor, profacist, and anti-Semitic groups—was formed. In it were Murphy, Clark, and representatives of the Du Pont, Rockefeller, and Mellon interests.
An alarmed Butler finally contacted reporter Paul Comly French, who found links among the American Liberty League, Wall Street, and those plotting against FDR. French’s newspaper articles exposed the plot.
In 1934, a congressional committee held hearings on the matter. Did the powerful Wall Street tycoons actively back the coup, or were they merely interested in reestablishing the gold standard? Much evidence was struck from the committee’s record as “hearsay”.We will probably never know the whole truth.
Significa by Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace.