I was involved in pro-peace, anti-war, anti-US Imperialism efforts during the most hideous years of the Reagan/Bush administrations (from 1980 – 1992) that resulted in the deaths and sufferings of millions of innocent people in virtually every South and Central American nation you can think of.  

As I remember the many innocent – often “disappeared” - war-refugees who suffered, starved and died at the hands of my war-profiteering national leaders, I am unable to shed any tears for the guilty ones, even if they are now dead or dying, for they were war-mongers that never apologized for their misdeeds. They were members beholden to Wall Street and War Street whose intentions made them responsible for brutal massacres, assassinations, torturing, mass killings, starvation and the impoverishment of millions of innocents that wanted to live in peace in their homeland that had been targeted for exploitation by my once-beloved homeland.  

When our past history of US-inflicted economic and military cruelty is forgotten (or never learned in the first place, as is the case of our current president), our people and politicians can’t make the connections between 1) America’s Wall Street and War Street exploitation of the rest of the world and 2) the current global crises of Big Business-induced global warming, Wall Street-induced economic disparities/oppression/refugees and War Street’s perpetual wars that have been going all over the planet since the Reagan/Bush administrations went into deep debt by lavishing trillions of dollars on America’s military, nuclear weapons and its conventional arsenals.    

I know that many of my readers also grew tired of the endless accolades for ex-president George Herbert Walker Bush (US President # 41) who died last Friday. Having to endure listening to the repetitive accounts of the small handful of good and decent things that he was given credit for made me turn off the radio and TV for most of the last 5 days. One such accolade that was particularly undeserved was his signing – not authoring or proposing or even politicking for - the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.   There are many points that need to be made when powerful US leaders die, especially presidents. But the accolades need to be balanced with what are often unwelcome truths. And, in my opinion, that balance needs to be applied particularly to those leaders that have been legitimately accused of being guilty of crimes against the peace, international war crimes or war-profiteering.  

Therefore, presidents and other national leaders that have been war-mongers, serial liars, sociopaths, narcissists, megalomaniacs, greed-heads or simply traitors to democratic ideals are particularly deserving of scorn – not accolades - even if they are recently deceased.   I recall cringing as I listened to the endless accolades given to pro-war presidents like Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan in the lead-up to their funerals. And I know that I will have to think twice before I mourn the inevitable deaths of our living but unrepentant, war-mongering presidents and their advisors (everyone since Carter?).   If I had been aware years ago, I also wouldn’t have mourned the deaths of the many evil-doers that were behind the fascist “Business Plot” to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1934 (see details in the two articles at the end of this piece).  

One of the “Business Plot” coup-plotters was banker Prescott Bush, the father of George H W Bush and grandfather of George W Bush. None of Prescott Bush’s progeny have been willing to talk about Prescott’s traitorous deeds. At the time of the plot, Prescott Bush was deeply involved in the business of the Hamburg-America Lines (co-owned by industrialists from both pro-Hitler Germany and pro-Hitler America). Bush was also involved in the ascendance of Adolf Hitler to his becoming dictator in 1933. Prescott Bush was slated to be the liaison between the coup-plotting group and Hitler’s new regime. The defeat of the Democrat FDR in his runs for re-election were important goals. The attempt to defeat FDR in the 1940 re-election campaign was actually heavily-funded by Nazi Germany. (A reminder of the alleged Russian involvement in defeating Hillary Clinton.) Prescott Bush became an FDR-hating Republican US Senator from Connecticut who must have been privately ambivalent about going to war against his old allies in Germany. Another irony is that Prescott’s son George H W Bush became a World War II war hero – albeit in the Pacific war against Japan. For much more on Prescott Bush’s deep involvement with the Third Reich, including Nazi Germany’s efforts to defeat FDR in his re-election campaign in 1940, go to http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-475-pryor-offenses/   For a good source of information on the Bush family, including the “Business Plot” against FDR, read Russ Baker’s book:

The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America   Some of the Unmentionables in George H W Bush’s Legacy

I’m certain that many of us aware of the many omissions concerning the legacy of George H W Bush. I list some of them below:  

1) Bush 41’s veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1990;

2) his nefarious actions while he was CIA chief in Gerald Ford’s administration;

3) his role in the US support of the uncountable South and Central American dictatorships during the Reagan administration;

4) the illegal invasion of Panama (Operation Just Cause!);

5) starting the un-provoked Persian Gulf War;

6) his Christmas Eve pardoning of former defense secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, Elliot Abrams and four other government officials that were involved in the Iran-Contra affair;

7) his complicity in the thousands of corpses that rotted on the Highway of Death in Iraq in 1991;

8) his playing the “race card” in the use of Willie Horton in the Dukakis campaign;

9) Bush 41 and the CIA’s role in the Contra War-era’s flooding of the US with crack cocaine that facilitated the epidemic that has persisted to this day;

10) his appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court;

11) the intentional targeting of the air-raid shelter in Baghdad that killed over 400 Iraqi civilians; and

12) a host of other items. Just google Bush plus: a) Operation Black Eagle; b) Oliver North; c) El Salvador; d) Nicaragua; e) Honduras; f) Felix Rodriguez; g) etc, etc,   Oh, and there was also no mention of

13) his admitted groping of at least 8 young women – acts that brought down in disgrace many of his contemporaries.  

(NOTE: The Iran-Contra affair, referred to above, was an illegal action that Bush was involved in when he was VP under Reagan. It was likewise never mentioned by any mainstream media outlet that I heard this week. Because of US congressional laws prohibiting the continued use of US taxpayer dollars to fund the right-wing Contra “rebels” that were fighting against various left-leaning nations in Central America, the Reagan/Bush administration secretly and illegally raised the money to keep the Contra’s terrorist operations going by selling missiles to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages. They then used the illicit money from those weapons sales to illegally fund the Contras in Nicaragua, Honduras and surrounding areas, an action which was forbidden by Congress. Oliver North was one of the point men in the illegal operation.)  

In the 101st Congress (during the first 2 years of Bush 41’s presidency), Democrats had sizable majorities of 55/45 in the Senate and 251/183 in the House of Representatives. It was during that time that the Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill occurred. The Big Oilman Bush surely collaborated in the mishandling, the cover-up and the failure to punish Exxon justly.   The capture, imprisonment (in a US prison!) and silencing of one of Bush 41’s many military dictator buddies, Panama’s Manuel Noriega. Military strongman Noriega was a CIA intelligence asset and paid informant during the time when Bush 41 was CIA Director (1976 - 1977), which was just one more motivating factor in the deceptively labeled “Operation Just Cause”.  

Another major motivation for the Panama invasion – during which uncounted numbers of innocent Panamanian civilians were killed by the US troops - was the fact that both Wall Street and War Street had been upset with President Jimmy Carter’s 1977 treaty with Panama. That treaty promised to gradually relinquish US control over the Canal Zone and gradually eliminate US military bases by the year 2000. The Bush invasion ultimately didn’t reverse the treaty as probably intended, and all US military installations were eventually handed over to Panama in late 1999 – much to the dissatisfaction of powerful economic and military elites.   Operation Just Cause was not authorized by the Democratic Party-controlled Congress. But there was a lot of progressive legislation that came to Bush’s Oval Office desk for his signature during his term, and he had little choice but to sign most of it.

(See a partial list of the legislation at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101st_United_States_Congress).

The Plot to Seize the White House

For much more on the attempted “Business Plot”, see Jules Archer’s 2015 book entitled The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking TRUE Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR

Here is a brief synopsis of the book provided by the publisher, Skyhorse Publishing:

“Many people might not know that in 1933, a group of wealthy industrialists—working closely with groups like the KKK and the American Liberty League—planned to overthrow the U.S. government and run FDR out of office in a fascist coup. Readers will learn of their plan to turn unhappy war veterans into American “brown shirts,” depose FDR, and stop the New Deal. They asked Medal of Honor recipient and Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to work with them and become the “first American Caesar.” Fortunately, Butler was a true patriot. Instead of working for the fascist coup, he revealed the plot to journalists and to Congress.

“Archer writes a compelling account of a plot that would have turned FDR into a fascist puppet, threatened American democracy and changed the course of history. This book not only reveals the truth behind this shocking episode in history, but also tells the story of the man whose courage and bravery prevented it from happening.”

 

The remainder of this article supports the arguments above.  

   Corporate America’s Love Affair with Fascism    Posted March 6, 2010 at: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread549365/pg1   "Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws." -- Mayer Amschel Rothschild    “What we have in America and Europe today are Fascist Bankocracies. Big Business and Big Banks have made slaves of us all and they know exactly what they are doing. The love affair between the big business elite and fascism has a long and storied history. Many people in high places have financed and supported fascist regimes. They've even tried to implement one in America via Coup. It is my belief as well as the belief of many others on ATS that a backdoor has already taken place and is in power right now.  “Big Business and big bankers believe Fascism to be the perfect example of government. People are nothing more than labor, sheeple to feed their machine of war and greed. Don’t believe me? Below I will link to several articles on the subject that are historical FACT. The point of this thread is to show people that the business elite and wall st banking elite of this nation and many other western nations are FASCISTS.” – From www.abovetopsecret.com   The second half of this column has been archived at:   http://duluthreader.com/search?search_term=Duty+to+Warn&p=2;

   Wall Street Millionaires Plotted to Overthrow President Franklin Delano Roosevelt When FDR messed with their money, they began engineering a coup By Matt Reimann - Aug 11, 2017 https://timeline.com/business-plot-overthrow-fdr-9a59a012c32a President Franklin Roosevelt made an enemy of the richest Americans with remarkable haste. By his first term, his heavily progressive New Deal taxes and the suspension of the gold standard inspired vocal opponents within the highest echelons of industry. Among them was an irate William Randolph Hearst, who filmed a message decrying the “impudent” and “despotic” new tax code. Yet of all of Roosevelt’s powerful enemies, perhaps none were more formidable, or incensed, than those who considered throwing him out of office by way of a fascist military coup. It is impossible to say exactly how close the Business Plot — also called the White House Coup and Wall Street Putsch — came to over-throwing the president. Nearly all we know about the plot is the result of an investigation conducted by the House McCormack-Dickstein Committee in November, 1934. Its chief whistleblower was one Major General Smedley Butler, a respected and tenured military leader with a talent for rallying support to his side. His part in the story began on July 1, 1933, the day he met with two members of the American Legion who had ties to Wall Street heavies.

At the time, Butler was enjoying the boost of a positive public profile, as a result of his enthusiastic advocacy for veterans. American Legion members Bill Doyle and Gerald MacGuire wanted to harness this when they asked Butler to appear at the Legion convention in Chicago, as part of a campaign to undermine the body’s leadership. Butler was sympathetic: He had long known of the Legion’s capacity for ignoring its members.  

In a second meeting, MacGuire, a $150-a-week bond salesman for the financier Grayson M. P. Murphy, proposed Butler bring along a few hundred veterans for support, and showed him bank statements amounting to $106,000, to pay for their travel expenses. A skeptical Butler surmised that no coalition of veterans could have gathered those funds. Adding to his bemusement was the speech they wanted him to deliver. It lacked populist, pro-veteran rhetoric, and read heavily as a screed in favor of the gold standard, a policy which President Roosevelt had suspended about a month earlier.  

The gold standard, as Butler’s subsequent research would uncover, was a major concern for the country’s wealthiest citizens. Bankers especially did not want to be paid back on their gold-backed loans with cheaper, ever-inflating paper. Keynesian economics be damned: To the capital interests of the country, a break from gold meant ravaging the nation’s wealth and savings.   At this point, Butler knew MacGuire was taking orders from someone, and requested to speak up the chain of command. It was then he met with Robert Sterling Clark, whose net worth of $30 million owed much to a recent inheritance from the Singer sewing machine fortune. Butler remembered Clark as a “millionaire lieutenant,” from when they served together during the Boxer Rebellion. Clark was blunt about his concerns. He and his associates hoped Butler would encourage support within the Legion and perhaps the country for the reinstatement of the gold standard. “I am willing to spend half of the 30 million to save the other half,” Clark confessed. As Butler suspected, this appeared less and less to be about veterans’ interests.  

Clark also bankrolled MacGuire’s seven-month trip abroad in December of 1933, in which the bond salesman was to survey the transforming political tides of Europe. He observed the ascending Nazis. He appreciated the Italian Fascists and their symbiotic relationship with the country’s powerful business interests. But MacGuire’s ultimate model ended up being a right-wing nationalist league in France called the Croix-de-Feu, which had managed to summon 150,000 supporters, many of whom were veterans.  

Gerald MacGuire was a portly, sweaty man, and made a habit of talking to Butler about his concerns with frustrating vagueness and equivocation. But after his trip, he brought Butler up to speed and came forward with an even larger proposal. Yes, MacGuire admitted, it was true that the money came from a coalition of concerned captains of industry. At the moment, they had invested $3 million in the project, and MacGuire estimated he could raise $300 million need be. What he wanted, he told Butler, was for the major general to assemble a paramilitary force of some 500,000 veterans, and to use them to throw President Roosevelt out of office.  

MacGuire informed Butler that the press would soon make an announcement about the league of businessmen fatigued by the president’s reckless economic reforms. They planned to plant stories about Roosevelt’s ill health and expected the president to comply with orders from his fellow patricians to hand over the highest seat of government. He would be permitted a ceremonial position while Butler and his allies steered the country in the proper direction.  

An astounded Butler debated where to turn first and decided to enlist a liberal Philadelphia paper to verify the details of his outlandish story. The paper sent their star reporter Paul Comly French who feigned anti-Roosevelt sympathies to interview MacGuire, who was candid about his views and details of the plot.

He mentioned that the Remington arms manufacturers would supply the army, thanks to a working relationship with the DuPonts. “We need a Fascist government in this country,” he told the reporter, “to save the nation from the communists who want to tear it down and wreck all that we have built in America. The only men who have the patriotism to do it are the soldiers and Smedley Butler is the ideal leader. He could organize a million men overnight.”  

Now that he had a second witness, Butler brought his story to the Feds. The committee began hearings on November 20, 1934. “To be perfectly fair to Mr. MacGuire,” Butler said, “He didn’t seem bloodthirsty. He felt that such a show of force in Washington would probably result in a peaceful overthrow of government.” French corroborated Butler’s testimony. Gerald MacGuire, however, denied everything but that the Legion solicited Butler’s support for the gold standard.     I

n a few days, the story hit the news cycle. “$3,000,000 Bid for Fascist Army Bared,” read one headline. Much of the press found the story risible. “Details are lacking to lend verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative,” wrote the New York Times. “The whole story sounds like a gigantic hoax … It does not merit serious discussion.”  

Those implicated agreed. Banker Grayson M.P. Murphy called it a “damned lie” and said he wasn’t “able to stop laughing” at the thought he, a prominent citizen and veteran of the Spanish-American War would attempt such treason. Thomas Lamont, a Wall Street banker implicated, called it “perfect moonshine. Too unutterably ridiculous to comment upon.”  

Shortly before the committee hearings, in September of 1934, the newly formed American Liberty League—made up of leaders and captains of industry opposed to the president “fomenting class hatred” and his handling of the Depression—released a statement. Among its members were the DuPonts, S.B. Colgate, Sewell Avery, John Raskob, Alfred P. Sloan, and former secretary of State Elihu Root. Butler noticed Robert Sterling Clark’s name on the list, as well as Grayson M. P. Murphy, Gerald MacGuire’s boss.  

Also implicated in the plot was Al Smith, former New York governor and 1928 Democratic presidential nominee, as well as Prescott Bush, a banker, future Connecticut senator, and father to George H. W. Bush and grandfather to George W. Bush.   Of these wealthy and prominent people, none was called for testimony, and none was punished.

Butler went on to rise in public profile, championing populism and pacifism with his 1935 book, War Is a Racket, but for the beneficial publicity, the committee as well as French agree that he was telling truth. And only recently has the public learned of a letter to Congress sent from an official at the company building the Hoover Dam, in which the writer warned of a plot by the “American Fascist Veterans Association” to overthrow the president.

What remains for many historians to debate is how wide the gap was in this scheme between contemplation and fruition. Butler’s whistleblowing certainly stopped it short, but one wonders if nothing else would have brought down such a complicated and inauspicious plan. Still, as historian Sally Denton points out, “The Fascist plot which General Butler exposed did not get very far, but that plot had in it three elements which make successful wars and revolutions: men, guns, and money.”

In the 1930s, Germany and Italy proved that no form of government should be taken for granted. At this exigent time in America — brought forth by the Depression, a destabilized world, and a transformative president — the rich doubled down on what they always do: protecting their own.

 

Dr Gary G. Kohls is a retired family physician from Duluth, MN, USA. Since his retirement from his holistic mental health practice he has been writing his weekly Duty to Warn column for the Duluth Reader, northeast Minnesota’s alternative newsweekly magazine. His columns, which are re-published around the world, deal with the dangers of American fascism, corporatism, militarism, racism, malnutrition, Big Pharma’s over-drugging and Big Vaccine’s over-vaccination agendas, as well as other movements that threaten human health, the environment, democracy, civility and the sustainability of all life on earth.

Many of his columns have been archived at a number of websites, including http://duluthreader.com/search?search_term=Duty+to+Warn&p=2; http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/gary-g-kohls; and https://www.transcend.org/tms/search/?q=gary+kohls+articles