Fascinating Conspiracies (Episode 3)… Coup d’état

January 3, 2022 by  
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The following may feel a bit 3rd-Worldish, however, we have had our own attempted coup d’état right here in the USA … and not so long ago – as reported in the Omaha Bee, November 21, 1934.

“The Business Plot (also called the Wall Street Putsch and The White House Putsch) was a political conspiracy in 1933 in the United States to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install a dictator. Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler asserted that wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans’ organization with Butler as its leader and use it in a coup d’état to overthrow Roosevelt. In 1934, Butler testified under oath before the United States House of Representatives Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the “McCormack–Dickstein Committee”) on these revelations. Although no one was prosecuted, the Congressional committee final report said, “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.”

Early in the committee’s gathering of testimony most major news media dismissed the plot, with a New York Times editorial falsely characterizing it as a “gigantic hoax”. Reporting changed when the final report was issued.

While historians have questioned whether or not a coup was actually close to execution, most agree that some sort of “wild scheme” was contemplated and discussed” (Wiki)

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