{"id":4253,"date":"2017-02-25T13:01:41","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T21:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=4253"},"modified":"2017-02-25T13:01:57","modified_gmt":"2017-02-25T21:01:57","slug":"biography-smedley-butler-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/02\/25\/biography-smedley-butler-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography: Smedley Butler (wikipedia.org)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Smedley Darlington Butler<\/b> (July 30, 1881\u00a0\u2013 June 21, 1940) was a United States Marine Corps<\/a> major general<\/a>, the highest rank authorized at that time, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, in Central America and the Caribbean during the Banana Wars<\/a>, and France in World War I<\/a>. Butler is well known for having later become an outspoken critic of U.S. wars and their consequences, as well as exposing the Business Plot<\/a>, an alleged plan to overthrow the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

By the end of his career, Butler had received 16\u00a0medals, five for heroism. He is one of 19 men to receive the Medal of Honor<\/a> twice, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal<\/a> and the Medal of Honor, and the only Marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions.<\/p>\n

In 1933, he became involved in a controversy known as the Business Plot<\/a>, when he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy industrialists were planning a military coup<\/a> to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt<\/a>, with Butler selected to lead a march of veterans to become dictator, similar to other Fascist regimes at that time. The individuals involved all denied the existence of a plot and the media ridiculed the allegations. A final report by a special House of Representatives Committee<\/a> confirmed some of Butler’s testimony.<\/p>\n

In 1935, Butler wrote a book titled War Is a Racket<\/a><\/i>, where he described and criticized the workings of the United States in its foreign actions and wars, such as those he was a part of, including the American corporations and other imperialist<\/a> motivations behind them. After retiring from service, he became a popular activist, speaking at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists<\/a>, and church groups in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

More at: \u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Smedley_Butler<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881\u00a0\u2013 June 21, 1940) was a United States Marine Corps major general, the highest rank authorized at that time, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4256,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions\/4256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}