1933 - Attempted Coup against FDR - Few Americans know that during the Great Depression, some of America 's wealthiest families including the Morgans and DuPonts fearful of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies conspired to overthrow the government of the United States and install a fascist dictatorship.
The Attempted Coup Against FDR
In 1933 Major General Smedley Darlington Butler reported to Congress a coup d'etat plot against President Franklin Roosevelt, sponsored by corporate interests. Alarmed by Roosevelt's Democratic "New Deal" which would redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, Irenee Du Pont, Grayson Murphy, William Doyle, John Davis and other representatives of J.P. Morgan banks, Du Pont, Goodyear and Bethlehem Steel sought to overthrow the U.S. government with a military coup and replace it with a fascist state, based on the recent success of Mussolini and Hitler in Italy and Germany.
General Butler was immensely popular with veterans and active troops. As a war hero, twice awarded the Medal of Honor, General Butler was known as "The Fighting Quaker" and a man of unimpeachable honesty and integrity. The conspirators tried to recruit Butler , by promising him an army of 500,000, unlimited financial backing and generous media spin control. The plot was foiled when Butler reported it to Congress.
To prevent a panic, Congress whitewashed the public version of its final report, deleting the names of the powerful businessmen whose reputations they sought to protect. The corporate owned media managed to spin the story as rumors and hearsay and the plot was generally covered up for many years. In 1967, journalist John Spivak uncovered the Committee's internal, secret report which clearly confirmed Butler 's story.
The Plot Against FDR
“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt