BBC radio...speaks of Whitehouse coup in 1933 against FDR.

[madfloridian]

I am listening to the audio, but it seems like very little on the page so far. It appears to link to a photo gallery that is not there. It appeared in the NYT in 1934, apparently.

The Whitehouse Coup

Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen.

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.

Here is more about the reporter, Mike Thomson.

Mike Thomson worked in national radio, television and newspapers. He presented the Breakfast show on the former Radio 5, worked as a reporter for Sky News and World Service Television and wrote regularly for The Daily Mail, The Independent and The Observer. Mike joined Today in the mid 1990's as a reporter and covered stories across the globe.

Mike has won a number of prestigious awards throughout his career. These include: The Texaco Award for 'Industrial Journalist of the Year' in the early 1990's; A Gold Sony Award in 2002 for Best News Programme: Document; The Day They Made it Rain ; (Which he wrote and presented for Radio 4) Shared a Sony Silver Award in the same year for his contribution to Today's coverage of the race riots in northern England; and won another Sony Gold Award in 2003 for Best News Coverage following his reports for Today on the latest famine to hit Ethiopia.

Says he is waiting on the documents, but has the sworn statements from at least five of those who were in the know...who had reported back to the congressional committee.

I had heard about this, but had never seen it on BBC. Is it considered conspiracy theory...or have we just about accepted that anything can happen. :shrug:

[babylonsister]

1. I've seen several threads about George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott,

today. The word is out; his son and grandson are completing his task.

[madfloridian]

2. The audio is fascinating..

About 29 minutes. Late now, may finish it tomorrow.

[madfloridian]

3. He said the documents archived are from the committee called

The McCormack..? committee. The last name is unintelligible. Sounds like "esteem".

Will finish the audio tomorrow.

[pnorman]

19. That ws "DICKSTEIN" who was on that Committee along with McCormack.

Here's another such DU thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1432456

pnorman

[madfloridian]

21. Thanks. I missed that. This board moves so fast.

I replayed it several times and could not get that name.

:hi:

[pnorman]

22. My hearing is really substandard.

Had I not been so well familiar with the written records of that attempted coup, I'd probably NEVER have got that name correct!

That was a very important part of (forgotten/suppressed) American history. There are plenty of 'leads' on this thread. It would be well worth your while to spend several hours Googling them all.

pnorman

[w13rd0]

4. Yep, I thought this was common knowledge.

Hell, the Bush family to this day practices eugenics. And look at the theories of Strauss, whose disciples Bush has surrounded himself with. We've been under the thumb of a "kinder, gentler facist state" for some time now, and his policies and actions demonstrate that. What better way to keep a population in check than with fear and celebrity minutae? And back then, many in Corporate America agreed with and supported the form of Corporate Socialism/Statism that Mussolini and Hitler advocated. The creation of a scapegoat which was lost when Russia when under, now reborn under the hooded guise of the "Islamist terrorist", an enemy even more elusive than the "communist jew". The manipulation of the media, the distraction of the population with the mundane, the drumming up of nationalist/religious fervor. It's all there for anyone with eyes to see. And even as a majority of the population turns against him, there's still the loyal Brownshirts, and most don't see it happening. These are people that, at least in their minds, are taking the "long view" for establishment of the 4th Reich. Even if they don't succeed this go round, they'll have softened us up. The changes they've made, the precedents they've established, will linger for a generation, until the next one rises up to take us a few steps closer to the cliffs edge.

[DutchLiberal]

11. What's so stunning, is that they do it out in the open. They don't hide it,

They're not conspiring in some dark basement or secret lair. The Bush family is taking over an entire country in broad daylight. Prescott attempted to do so; George H.W. Bush committed so many crimes while in office, I lost count; and now George Bush does it even on a larger scale. For everybody to see. Right on display. But not one person is standing up to them to get them at trial and in jail.

[Hieronymus]

5. Thanks for the audio .. I sent it to friends. There's been talk of this for years.

[madfloridian]

10. It is a great audio. I wonder what luck they had in the archives here.

I can just imagine the kind of shape they are in after 6 years of Little Boots regime.

[demoleft]

6. "...their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression..."

My God, those policies!
My mother was a child and still remembers those "policies"!
How poor and in misery was Italy at the time!

Well, I've always considered american Presidential murders - JFK case, for example - a kind of conspiracy and a "little" coup too.
Because when a President gets killed all his men are slowly silently put out of their office. New Presidents bring new men, putting an end to the political line of the predecessor.

Ok, it's not an overturn of the democratic system. But it's surely the cancellation of the people's will. Which is in itself destructive of democracy.

Moreover, with this case you're experiencing something we know better in Italy.
Cases like this are usually covered and little discussed because the protagonists of the missed or realized events continue to exist, as respected businessmen, honored politicians, homaged citizens.
The background of a coup always survives the coup.

[madfloridian]

12. Did you notice the names?

Like Prescott Bush...George's granddaddy?

Thoughtful post, demoleft.

:hi:

[Cobalt-60]

7. They've tried to destroy the records over the years

but didn't quite manage to get it all before digital storage..alas.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Col. General Smedley Darlington Butler was approached to lead this coup.

Instead he went to the FBI and Congress and testified against the group and stopped the coup d'etat before it started.

(This is the author of "War Is A Racket". Google the essay.)

[Bitwit1234]

9. I have searched History Channel and it is frustrating

that only certain shows have been listed. I am going to call today and find out why we can't get a copy of that particular show. I lived in a State that was democratic forever, but we did not even hear about that in our history classes.

[mojowork_n]

13. I found this summary (32 pages) of the whole movement, with

...this overview of General Butler's involvement:

http://www.insider-magazine.com/ChristianMafia.htm

...According to Marine Corps General Smedley Butler, shortly after Franklin Roosevelt was elected President in 1932, he was approached by a group of wealthy Republican industrialists to lead an anti-Roosevelt Fascist coup against the government. As with today’s Fellowship, Vereide and Buchman were merely front men for anti-Socialist big businesses who hid behind the façade of a Christian evangelical movement. To them and their bankrollers, Roosevelt was some sort of anti-Christ who was going to go to bat for the workers, blacks, the poor and women while, at the same time, menacing the ultra-rich and the rising Nazi and Fascist specter in Europe. The coup was to be financed mostly by the J. P. Morgan and Du Pont financial empires. General Butler, who had no time for these industrialists since his military forays into Central America and the Caribbean as a foot soldier on behalf of wealthy capitalists, rejected their overture. Gerald MacGuire, a Wall Street bond salesman and former Commander of the Connecticut American Legion, was the chief recruiter for the coup plot. Butler informed Congress of the plans for the coup. However, Congress was owned by Wall Street and no charges were ever brought against the plotters. Butler was incensed and went public but he was dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. Not until 1967, when journalist John Spivak uncovered the secret Congressional report, was Butler’s version of the events validated. In the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Nazi Propaganda Activities in the United States, Rep. Samuel Dickstein (D-NY) concluded that there was evidence of a coup plot by the right-wing against Roosevelt. However, much to Butler’s chagrin, no criminal action was taken against the plotters...

I've actually read the whole article from which this is from, about 7 or 9 months ago. It's page one, from volume one, edition one of the Wayne M. report. If you go all the way to the first posting on the website, which I did one day.

[pnorman]

20. It's available as a DVD.

I have a copy which I think was ordered through Amazon. But here it is on the web: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=628728631767818729

pnorman

[crud76]

24. It's here

on Google video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=628728631767818729

[madfloridian]

29. I tried the search for a DVD...but can't find it.

If you run across a link for it, please let me know.

[Norrin Radd]

14. k+r

[rudy23]

15. I've always thought it was W's #1 goal to be the anti-FDR

His only two concerns seem to be:

Taking out Saddam Hussein on behalf of his Dad
Reversing all of FDR's policies on behalf of his Granddad

[madfloridian]

18. And he always wanted to be an emperor.

He said it would be better if he were a dictator. I think most of us caught on then.

[CGowen]

16. It appeared in the NYT and just like today they were willing to spin it

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/27/112936/440


The next day, November 23, the Times changed its reporting still further. The headlines were now about Reds and Red Union Strife and concerned alleged activities by communists in American trade unions, while the Butler testimony and the developing evidence were secreted deep within the reporting of Red activities. The resulting story was, of course, vague and confused, but it effectively buried the Butler evidence.

[madfloridian]

17. Thank you for the link. Heading there to read it now.

I remember that post at Kos.

:hi:

[pnorman]

23. Thanks for that DAILY KOS link.

I don't follow that website as well as I should be doing, and had missed that one. I'll add that with its included links, to my notes on that attempted coup.

pnorman

[JohnyCanuck]

25. The treasonous bastards did tell Smedley

that they controlled all the newspapers. I guess they weren't fooling.

Bush Advocated Violent Overthrow of US Government - ?
by R o o k
Wed Jul 25, 2007 at 03:21:13 PM PDT

According to a new BBC report, Prescott Bush (father of George H.W. and grandfather of George W.) was involved in a plot to overthrow the U.S. government and replace it with a fascist dictatorship in 1933.

It is known (if not well known) that Wall Street tycoons were so outraged by the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his proposed New Deal that they started organizing a coup. The idea was to enlist the revered Major General Smedley Butler to recruit 500,000 WWI veterans into a private army that would demand FDR’s resignation -- and execute him on the spot if he refused to give up power. The new government would be a capitalist dictatorship modeled after Nazi Germany.

<snip>
Note: It was largely the fear that the New Deal would give new power to minorities and immigrants that motivated the coup.

Also note: The tycoons told General Butler the American people would accept the new government because they controlled all the newspapers. (emphasis added /jc)

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/25/17852/8697

[RadiDem]

26. Its been known for years Hero (War is a racket) Smedley Butler documented it after in happened >

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

[TheOtherMaven]

27. Been looking for a place to put this

I was thinking about the 1933 "secret coup" attempt and other hushed-up and glossed-over bits of US history, and the next thing I knew, I had a poem running through my head. I hurried to write it down before it evaporated again:

Hush, puppy
It never happened
No one planned a coup
Against FDR
No one was prosecuted
It never happened
Hush, puppy

Hush, puppy
It’s over now
Nixon’s resigned
And Ford signed his pardon
We can all forget
It’s over now
Hush, puppy

Hush, puppy
It doesn’t matter
Reagan never knew
His Veep was out of the loop
It was all Ollie North
It doesn’t matter
Hush, puppy

Hush, puppy
It’s all right
No need to impeach
Bush’s term ends soon
Nothing will go wrong
It’s all right
Hush, puppy…
Who’s at the door?

[madfloridian]

28. Great verses. Thanks.

You picked a good place for them.

:hi: