- cross-posted to:
- todayilearned@lemmit.online
- cross-posted to:
- todayilearned@lemmit.online
In 1933, a coalition of businessmen dissatisfied with FDR’s economic policies surreptitiously planned a coup. The failed Business Plot aimed to depose FDR and install a dictator.
And they would have gotten away with it too if Smedley Butler hadn’t blown the whistle after they approached him to lead the coup’s forces.
Going to take a moment to plug a great biography of him I read, Gangsters of Capitalism Butler was a very complicated person, much like the rest of the Quakers.
I do feel like saying they would’ve gotten away with it is perhaps a tad overstating their chances
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
He behaved honorably during this plot and outside of it.
One of the first military leaders to start calling out the overreach of business elites in the US.