They viewed a currency not solidly backed by gold as inflationary, undermining both private and business fortunes and leading to national bankruptcy. Roosevelt's election was upsetting for many conservative businessmen of the time, as his "campaign promise that the government would provide jobs for all the unemployed had the perverse effect of creating a new wave of unemployment by businessmen frightened by fears of socialism and reckless government spending." Some writers have said concerns over the gold standard were also involved Jules Archer, in The Plot to Seize the White House, wrote that with the end of the gold standard, "conservative financiers were horrified. By 1933, Butler started denouncing capitalism and bankers, going on to explain that for 33 years he had been a "high-class muscle man" for Wall Street, the bankers and big business, labeling himself as a "racketeer for Capitalism". Roosevelt in the 1932 US presidential election. Douglas MacArthur destroyed their camps.īutler, although a self-described Republican, responded by supporting Franklin D. Army cavalry troops under the command of Gen. A few days after Butler's arrival, President Herbert Hoover ordered the marchers removed and U.S. Smedley Butler, a popular military figure of the time. It was encouraged by an appearance from retired Marine Corps Maj. Waters, a former Army sergeant, led this " Bonus Army". 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 to them according to the World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 (which made certain bonuses initially due no earlier than 1925 and all no later than 1945). Shacks, erected by the Bonus Army on the Anacostia flats, burning after being set on fire by the US military (1932) 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. Reporting changed when the final report was issued. 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."Įarly 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". 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. 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. 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. federal government, see Newburgh Conspiracy, Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, and List of coups and coup attempts by country § United States. For other attempts to unseat or destabilize the U.S.
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