BUSINESS PLOT

1. Public Record

July 1933. Major General Smedley Butler, retired, Newtown Square. A call from a man who said Jack. Then Gerald MacGuire and William Doyle of the Legion. Talk of a veterans' march, money from names on Wall Street, a wish that Butler front a force that would put a Secretary of General Affairs over Roosevelt and leave FDR as a face. Butler took it to a reporter, Paul French. French went to MacGuire and heard enough to print. The McCormack-Dickstein committee heard them behind closed doors in New York from 20 November 1934. Bank paper and letters, the staff said, lined up with Butler. Final report 15 February 1935: attempts to build a fascist organisation were discussed, planned, and might have been run if the backers had judged the moment. Most names were stripped before the report hit the floor.

No troops moved. MacGuire called it talk. The press mocked. The committee did not call it nothing. Butler had run other men's coups abroad and said he knew the shape.

There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.

2. Date of Incident

Approaches 1933. Hearings November 1934. Report February 1935.

3. Location

Newtown Square and New York hearing rooms. Approximate 39°59 N 075°24 W.

4. Official Narrative

A House committee found planning and no executed march. Official narrative is the report, not a conviction.

5. Witness Layer

Butler. MacGuire. French. McCormack. Dickstein.

Butler knew a coup when he saw one.

Armed forces for the purpose of establishing a dictatorship have no place in this country.

6. Recovery Logistics

Hearing transcript, partly censored. Bank traces the staff cited. No seized arsenal.

7. Assessment

A hearing file. Keep the march that did not leave the room. Keep the stripped names. A general who had done this work for others is why the committee listened. Mockery in the papers is not a verdict. The 1935 sentence is. Do not inflate it into tanks on Pennsylvania Avenue. Do not shrink it to a drunk Legion tale.

8. Materials & Remains

The February 1935 report. Butler's testimony. French's copy.

9. Key Personnel

Smedley Butler : The witness.

Gerald MacGuire : The approach.

John McCormack : The chair.

Paul French : The first print.

10. Aftermath

No prosecutions of the money. HUAC grew out of the same committee tree. Butler kept talking.

11. Current Archive Status

Status: 1933 approaches. 1934 hearings. 1935 report: planned, not marched.

Confidence: High that Butler testified and that the committee endorsed planning. High that no coup was executed. Low that every backer named in the room is in the public report. Low that MacGuire was only a fantasist.

Filing note

A retired Marine in Pennsylvania, a Legion fundraiser, talk of a Secretary over the President, a reporter sent to check, a closed New York room, a report that kept the plan and dropped most of the names. No one marched.

Might have been placed in execution. The committee's own hedge, which is still more than the papers were willing to give him.