Smedley Butler on Interventionism
Smedley Butler on Interventionism
-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley<br>Butler, USMC.
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something<br>that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside<br>group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very<br>few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a<br>nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America<br>is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets<br>restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the<br>dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment<br>of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the<br>defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other<br>reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is<br>blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to<br>destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss"<br>Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison.<br>Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in<br>active military service as a member of this country's most agile military<br>force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second<br>Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my<br>time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and<br>for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it.<br>Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of<br>my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended<br>animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with<br>everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests<br>in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City<br>Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen<br>Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of<br>racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international<br>banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name<br>before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar<br>interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went<br>its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell<br>racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few<br>hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I<br>operated on three continents.