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Hotler

(11,420 posts)
Fri Oct 22, 2021, 10:50 AM Oct 2021

The fascist tried a coup attempt before in 1934 with backing by the wealthy.

(snip)
Butler went to Senator John McCormack and told him that there was a fascist plot to overthrow President Franklin Roosevelt. Butler claimed that on 1st July 1934, Gerald C. MacGuire a Wall Street bond salesman and Bill Doyle, the department commander of the American Legion in Massachusetts, tried to recruit him to lead a coup against Roosevelt. Butler claimed that the conspirators promised him $30 million in financial backing and the support of most of the media.

Butler pretended to go along with the plot and met other members of the conspiracy. In November 1934 Butler began testifying in secret to the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Authorized to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda Activities (the McCormack-Dickstein Committee). Butler claimed that the American Liberty League was the main organization behind the plot. He added the main backers were the Du Pont family, as well as leaders of U.S. Steel, General Motors, Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.

Butler also named Prescott Bush as one of the conspirators. At the time Bush was along with W. Averell Harriman, E. Roland Harriman and George Herbert Walker, managing partners in Brown Brothers Harriman. Bush was also director of the Harriman Fifteen Corporation. This in turn controlled the Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation, that owned one-third of a complex of steel-making, coal-mining and zinc-mining activities in Germany and Poland. Friedrich Flick owned the other two-thirds of the operation. Flick was a leading financial supporter of the Nazi Party and in the 1930s donated over seven million marks to the party. A close friend of Heinrich Himmler, Flick also gave the Schutz Staffeinel (SS) 10,000 marks a year.

https://spartacus-educational.com/USAbutlerSD.htm

11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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The fascist tried a coup attempt before in 1934 with backing by the wealthy. (Original Post) Hotler Oct 2021 OP
More history not taught in schools... IrishAfricanAmerican Oct 2021 #1
Yep, never taught at my school either. Buckeye_Democrat Oct 2021 #4
Yes, I also learned about that post 12th grade. --nt IrishAfricanAmerican Oct 2021 #6
My high school history teachers covered a lot... Buckeye_Democrat Oct 2021 #7
Gen Butler nailed it... War is a racket to make obcene amounts of money for the select few.... mitch96 Oct 2021 #2
Yes. For obvious reasons this is called by some The Business Plot. Hortensis Oct 2021 #3
Not to mention that German industrialists... Buckeye_Democrat Oct 2021 #5
And there were no consequences to anyone. malthaussen Oct 2021 #8
Bush Crime Family. roamer65 Oct 2021 #9
This message was self-deleted by its author malthaussen Oct 2021 #10
BBC aired a nice program on this buried history... Kid Berwyn Oct 2021 #11

IrishAfricanAmerican

(3,815 posts)
1. More history not taught in schools...
Fri Oct 22, 2021, 10:57 AM
Oct 2021

At least not in my school. I learned about this listening to Thom Hartmann.



Buckeye_Democrat

(14,853 posts)
7. My high school history teachers covered a lot...
Fri Oct 22, 2021, 11:17 AM
Oct 2021

... of the ugly history that happened in the USA/America, so I'm grateful for that, but several of the more recent fascist aspects were ignored completely.

mitch96

(13,893 posts)
2. Gen Butler nailed it... War is a racket to make obcene amounts of money for the select few....
Fri Oct 22, 2021, 11:01 AM
Oct 2021

And at the cost of the young on both sides....
In the 1950's Eisenhower was right when he said to beware of the Military Industrial Complex.
m

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
3. Yes. For obvious reasons this is called by some The Business Plot.
Fri Oct 22, 2021, 11:02 AM
Oct 2021

Trump's threat of a coup d'etat inspired the WaPo to also write about this earlier attempt by RW businessmen to overthrow the government after Democrats were elected to clean up the national mess.

Lots of fascists everywhere in those days (as now, the same kind of peple), inspired by Mussolini and Hitler while searching for a compelling Strongman at home. Even member of the British Royal family were "inspired."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/13/fdr-roosevelt-coup-business-plot/

Buckeye_Democrat

(14,853 posts)
5. Not to mention that German industrialists...
Fri Oct 22, 2021, 11:08 AM
Oct 2021

... supported the Nazis too, seeing them as preferable to the socialists and communists over there.

malthaussen

(17,187 posts)
8. And there were no consequences to anyone.
Fri Oct 22, 2021, 11:19 AM
Oct 2021

Indeed, at the time, the whole thing was dismissed as a massive hoax. Mr Bush, of course, went on to a prosperous career in the US Senate.

-- Mal

Response to Hotler (Original post)

Kid Berwyn

(14,884 posts)
11. BBC aired a nice program on this buried history...
Fri Oct 22, 2021, 02:45 PM
Oct 2021

...

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.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

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