The Business Plot (also the Plot Against FDR and the White House Putsch) was an alleged political conspiracy in 1933 wherein wealthy businessmen and corporations plotted a coup d’état to overthrow United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1934, the Business Plot was publicly revealed by retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testifying to the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional Committee. [1] In his testimony, Butler claimed that a group of men had approached him as part of a plot to overthrow Roosevelt in a military coup. One of the alleged plotters, Gerald MacGuire, vehemently denied any such plot. In their final report, the Congressional committee supported Butler's allegations of the existence of the plot,[2] but no prosecutions or further investigations followed, and the matter was mostly forgotten.
On July 17, 1932, thousands of World War I veterans converged on Washington, D.C., set up tent camps, and demanded immediate payment of bonuses due them according to the Adjusted Service Certificate Law of 1924. This "Bonus Army" was led by Walter W. Waters, a former Army sergeant. The Army was encouraged by an appearance from retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, who had considerable influence over the veterans, being one of the most popular military figures of the time. [citation needed] A few days after Butler's arrival, President Herbert Hoover ordered the marchers removed, and their camps were destroyed by US Army cavalry troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur.
Butler, although a self-described Republican, responded by supporting Roosevelt in that year's election.[3]
In a 1995 History Today article Clayton Cramer argued that the devastation of the Great Depression had caused many Americans to question the foundations of liberal democracy. "Many traditionalists, here and in Europe, toyed with the ideas of Fascism and National Socialism; many liberals dallied with Socialism and Communism." Cramer argues that this explains why some American business leaders viewed fascism as a viable system to both preserve their interests and end the economic woes of the Depression.[4]
Year | Date | Event |
---|---|---|
1933 | July 1 | First Butler meeting with MacGuire and Doyle[5] |
July 3 or 4 | Second meeting with MacGuire and Doyle[6] | |
Around August 1 | MacGuire visits Butler alone.[7] Butler never sees Doyle again. | |
September 24[8][9] | MacGuire visits Butler's hotel room in Newark.[10] | |
Late-September | Butler meets with Robert Clark.[11] | |
1934 | First half of 1934 | MacGuire travels to Europe, sends Butler postcards[12] |
March 6 | MacGuire writes Clark and Clark's attorney letter describing the Croix de Feu[13] | |
August 22 | Butler meets MacGuire at a Hotel. Last time Butler meets MacGuire[14][15] | |
September 13 | Undercover reporter French meets MacGuire in his office[16] | |
Late September | Butler tells Van Zandt that conspirators will meet him at upcoming Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. | |
November 20 | Committee begins examining evidence. Paul Comly French breaks the story in the Philadelphia Record and the New York Post.[17] | |
November 21 | New York Times writes its first article on the story. | |
November 24 | The committee publicly releases its preliminary findings.[18] | |
1935 | January 3 | Final day of committee[19] |
January 29 | Spivak publishes first of two articles in Communist magazine, revealing deleted portion of congressional committee. Spivak argues the plot is part of a Fascist conspiracy of financiers and Jews to take over the USA; he alleges names of big business leaders. | |
February 15 | Committee submits to Congress its final report.[20][21] |
Participants | Background | Role |
---|---|---|
Gerald C. MacGuire | MacGuire was a $100 a week bond salesman for Murphy & Company,[22][23] former commander of the Connecticut American Legion[24][25] who had been an activist for the gold currency movement that Robert Sterling Clark sponsored.[citation needed] | Met Butler several times |
William Doyle | Bill Doyle was commander of the Massachusetts American Legion.[26] | Met Butler with MacGuire on first visit |
Robert Sterling Clark | Robert Sterling Clark was an art collector who lived mostly in Paris,[citation needed] one of Wall Street's richest investors,[citation needed] and heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune.[27][28] MacGuire had known Robert S. Clark when he was a Second Lieutenant in China during the Boxer Rebellion. Clark had been nicknamed "the millionaire lieutenant.[28] |
The events testified to in the McCormack-Dickstein Committee happened between July and November 1933. The Committee began examining evidence a year later, on November 20, 1934. On November 24 the committee released a statement detailing the testimony it had heard about the plot and its preliminary findings. On February 15, 1935, the committee submitted to the House of Representatives its final report.[20] The McCormack-Dickstein Committee was the precursor to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC); its materials are archived with those of the HUAC.
During the McCormack-Dickstein Committee hearings, Butler testified that through MacGuire and Bill Doyle, who was then the department commander of the American Legion in Massachusetts,[29] the conspirators attempted to recruit him to lead a coup, promising him an army of 500,000 men for a march on Washington, D.C., $30 million in financial backing,[30] and generous media spin control.
Despite Butler's support for Roosevelt in the election,[3] and his reputation as a strong critic of capitalism,[citation needed] Butler said the plotters felt his good reputation and popularity were vital in attracting support amongst the general public, and saw him as easier to manipulate than others.
Butler said he spoke for thirty minutes with Gerald C. MacGuire. In attempting to recruit Butler, MacGuire may have played on the general's loyalty toward his fellow veterans. Knowing of an upcoming bonus in 1935 for World War I veterans, Butler said MacGuire told him, "We want to see the soldiers' bonus paid in gold. We do not want the soldier to have rubber money or paper money." Such names as Al Smith, Roosevelt's political foe and former governor of New York, and Irénée du Pont, a chemical industrialist, were said to be the financial and organizational backbone of the plot. Butler stated that once the conspirators were in power, they would protect Roosevelt from other plotters.[32]
Given a successful coup, Butler said that the plan was for him to have held near-absolute power in the newly created position of "Secretary of General Affairs," while Roosevelt would have assumed a figurehead role.
Reaction to Butler's testimony by the media and business elite was dismissive or hostile. The majority of media outlets, including The New York Times, Philadelphia Post,[33] and Time Magazine ridiculed or downplayed his claims, saying they lacked evidence. After the committee concluded, The New York Times and Time Magazine downplayed the conclusions of the committee.[34]
The committee deleted extensive excerpts from the report relating to Wall Street financiers including J.P. Morgan & Co., the Du Pont interests, Remington Arms, and others allegedly involved in the plot attempt. As of 1975, a full transcript of the hearings had yet to be traced.[35]
Those accused of the plotting by Butler all denied any involvement. MacGuire was the only figure identified by Butler who testified before the committee. Others involved were actually called to appear to testify, though never were forced to testify.
From the McCormack-Dickstein Committee files found at wikisource.
Further information: [[:Suppressed testimony of the McCormack-Dickstein Committee on wikisource, showing all of the deleted text]] |
Reporter "John L. Spivak had been tipped off earlier by a fellow Washington correspondent that some of Butler's testimony had been deleted in the committee's November 26, 1934 report to the House of Representatives. . . . "[42]
"Other newsmen joined (Spivak) in pressing for a copy of the (McCormack-Dickstein Committee report). It was then that the defunct McCormack-Dickstein Committee . . . decided to publish a 125-page document containing the testimony of Butler, MacGuire, and others, on 15 February 1933. It was marked ‘Extracts’. . . .
"A veteran Washington correspondent told Spivak that he had heard the deletions had been made at the request of a member of the President's Cabinet..."[42]
Spivak "had been tipped-off earlier that the House of Representatives intended to let the McCormack-Dickstein Committee expire on January 3, 1935, rather than renew it as the Committee had asked in order to continue its investigations."[42]
"About a week later . . . Spivak won permission from Dickstein to examine the Committee's official exhibits and make photo . . . copies of those that had been made public [from] the Committee's secretary, Frank P. Randolph."[42]
"Randolph, flooded with work involved in closing the Committee's files and records, gave Spivak stacks of documents, exhibits, and transcripts of testimony that were being sent to the Government Printing Office. To Spivak's amazement, he found among these records a full transcript of the executive session hearings in the Butler affair."[42]
Spivak "compared it with the official extract of the hearings and found a number of startling omissions made from the testimony of both Butler and French."[42]
Spivak wrote a two-part article revealing the Committee's deletions, [43] historian Schmidt explains:
After Spivak told Gen. Butler about the deletions from the transcript of his testimony, in his broadcast over WCAU on February 17, 1935, Butler revealed that some of the “most important” portions of his testimony had been suppressed in the McCormack-Dickstein report to Congress. “The Committee”, he growled, “stopped dead in its tracks when it got near the top”. [42] He added angrily:
The Congressional committee report confirmed Butler's testimony (emphasis added):
Portions of Gen. Butler's story were corroborated by:
These reasons were proposed to explain why the Business Plot did not become a cause célèbre:
Doubters of Gen. Butler's testimony claimed it lacked evidence:
The 2007 BBC radio documentary The White House Coup reported on the Business Plot.[55]