Speaker 1: This is an I heeart original. Imagine a smoke filled room,
Speaker 1: like just any smoke filled room. No, no, the smoke
Speaker 1: filled room. Ah, the smoke filled room, that mythical place
Speaker 1: where nefarious plans are laid in, conspiracies are hatched. It's
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three, and the smoke filled room is occupied
Speaker 1: by disgruntled masters of the universe. We're talking really rich,
Speaker 1: really powerful, really white guys, historical dudes. Yeah, and they
Speaker 1: all really disliked the President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They joke
Speaker 1: about getting rid of him all the time. I can
Speaker 1: almost picture them now. Yeah, yes, I hate that guy.
Speaker 1: A traito to his class. Now, at some point the
Speaker 1: conversation about getting rid of FDR gets real. He must go,
Speaker 1: I concur we must plan to the smoke filled rooms.
Speaker 1: Us already here. Ah, so we are looks different. Someone
Speaker 1: paint from I Heart Originals and School of Humans. This
Speaker 1: is let's start a coup. I'm your host, Ben Buller,
Speaker 1: and I'm your other host, Alex French, to bring you
Speaker 1: the story. You've done all the research, read the books,
Speaker 1: interviewed historians, but still there are some big gaps in
Speaker 1: the historical record. And we'll never know exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: So in those gaps we've had some fun. No, no,
Speaker 1: it else makes it fun. They oh mam episode, what
Speaker 1: a basket full of fascists. A proper coup requires three ingredients.
Speaker 1: The first thing you need is a leader, but not
Speaker 1: just any kind of leader. You need a dictator, one
Speaker 1: who's actually a puppet so that we can call the shots,
Speaker 1: but nonetheless a strong man who commands respect, the man
Speaker 1: on the white horse, if you will. I like where
Speaker 1: you're going with that, quite as god, not so loud.
Speaker 1: The second ingredient you need muscle, and by muscle we
Speaker 1: mean enough to march on the palace and overwhelm the
Speaker 1: guards and the Capitol police and then any remaining pitchfork
Speaker 1: wielding loyalists. I know some fabulous ruffians from a terrible neighborhood. No, no,
Speaker 1: think classia. Columns of jack booted thugs, Oh fabulous, a
Speaker 1: black uniform shirts with those wildly exciting arm biound. The
Speaker 1: mind reels with the sartorial options. And you need a
Speaker 1: loyal commander to lead that pack of lunatics. Yes, that's right, Alex.
Speaker 1: That person might be the most important piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 1: You better make sure your top general is on your side,
Speaker 1: that their loyalty is in the right place. This is
Speaker 1: a huge deal. Who do washing genitals? No good? Noted say,
Speaker 1: you know, this reminds me of a story, an episode
Speaker 1: from American history that nobody really knows or talks about
Speaker 1: too much these days. It's a story about a plot
Speaker 1: to overthrow a sitting American president and the general who
Speaker 1: claimed that he was recruited to lead the coup. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's a total banger. It's got everything, the seat, betrayal,
Speaker 1: dark comedy. I guess it is kind of dark in here. Well,
Speaker 1: then turn on a lamp, dummy, Oh there you are.
Speaker 1: Our story takes place during a time in American history
Speaker 1: when fascism still had that new car smell smack, in
Speaker 1: the middle of what's called the interwar period, those years
Speaker 1: between the First and Second World Wars, the time of
Speaker 1: social strife and political upheaval, toxicity courses through our political discourse.
Speaker 1: It felt back then a little bit like it does today.
Speaker 1: And here to tell us more about it is none
Speaker 1: other than a man so loathsome so despicable that the
Speaker 1: musical Annie has an entire song about what a tool
Speaker 1: he is that's a true story. I don't know why
Speaker 1: everyone's calling it a great depression. I can't remember when
Speaker 1: I last had such a swell time. It's President Herbert Hoover,
Speaker 1: who Well, I'm just gonna let him sink his own ship, America.
Speaker 1: Cool it. There's only twenty five percent unemployment. That means
Speaker 1: seventy five percent of you are lucky enough to have
Speaker 1: jobs you hate. And so what if ninety percent of
Speaker 1: West Virginia and Kentucky residents suffer from malnutrushan? I say,
Speaker 1: who'd want to live there? Anyway, mister Hoover. Point is,
Speaker 1: nobody is actually starving. The hoboes are better fad than
Speaker 1: they have ever been. My producers giving me a look?
Speaker 1: Was that bad? Should I not have thought that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Empathy was never your strong suit, mister Hoover. They know,
Speaker 1: but look at the actual suit I'm wearing. It's fierce right.
Speaker 1: While homeowners are losing their houses at a rate of
Speaker 1: one thousand a day, you refuse to freeze foreclosures, and
Speaker 1: I bad I'd have gotten no way with it if
Speaker 1: it hadn't been for that meddling electorate. Sorry, herbs, that's
Speaker 1: just the way it goes in November nineteen thirty two,
Speaker 1: Franklin Delano Roosevelt wins the presidential election in a landslide.
Speaker 1: While it's heads funeralll this top Fox after his inauguration, Roosevelt,
Speaker 1: Are you saying it right? Or am I? Is it
Speaker 1: Roosevelt or is it Roosevelt? I think they're both actually correct.
Speaker 1: I mean I pronounce a guad Delano faith used to
Speaker 1: be President man Alex go ahead. So after his inauguration,
Speaker 1: Roosevelt calls an emergency session of Congress, during which the
Speaker 1: legislative branch rubber stamps New Deal legislation aimed at jump
Speaker 1: starting the economy, one remaining instrument. It's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to understand what Roosevelt is saying, but he's essentially asking
Speaker 1: for broad executive power to fight the depression. He says,
Speaker 1: quote as great as the power that would be given
Speaker 1: to me if we were in fact invaded by a
Speaker 1: were in foe. Well, if that's what you want to do,
Speaker 1: go for it. I gas. Throughout this entire period, the
Speaker 1: idea that democracy has failed is everywhere, and there are
Speaker 1: some very powerful voices advocating for dictatorship in the United States.
Speaker 1: Some of these people own newspapers and motion picture companies.
Speaker 1: They held government office owned banks and huge corporations. Ideas
Speaker 1: about the brokenness of democracy were on the front pages
Speaker 1: of the paper and in the movies. These powerful people
Speaker 1: believed there had to be a better way, a new
Speaker 1: path that protected the status quo, while at the same
Speaker 1: time giving them even more power. That way was well fascism.
Speaker 1: Case in point. In nineteen thirty three, MGM released a
Speaker 1: remarkable photo drama that's a Depression era speak for movie.
Speaker 1: It's called Gabriel Over the White House. This film was
Speaker 1: financed by media magnate William Randolph Hurst, also known as
Speaker 1: the inspiration for the classic film Citizen Kane. But like
Speaker 1: in a bad way anyway. Hurst media holdings made him
Speaker 1: one of the most powerful men in the world, and
Speaker 1: he made a movie that has been mostly forgotten, but
Speaker 1: it reveals the American elites fascistic fantasy of a strong
Speaker 1: man who could just get stuff done. Democracy be damned.
Speaker 1: In Gabriel, Walter Houston plays Judd Hammond, an American politician
Speaker 1: who has just been inaugurated as President of the United States.
Speaker 1: The film is set in nineteen thirties America. The country's
Speaker 1: in peril, poverty, hunger, distrust of institutions. Here's audio of
Speaker 1: a disgruntled reporter describing the climate at a press conference
Speaker 1: early in the film. My paper's indictment against the government
Speaker 1: is a staggering one. Millions of dollars are portant to
Speaker 1: new Battleship farm as brent corn and wheat is thrown
Speaker 1: away into the sea while men and women are begging
Speaker 1: for bread. What does the new administration to say to this? Now?
Speaker 1: From the get go, it's abundantly obvious that Hammond is
Speaker 1: not cut out for the job. He's just one. He's
Speaker 1: part of this corrupt political machine that has led the
Speaker 1: American people into a horrific depression. Early in the film,
Speaker 1: Hammond takes a presidential limo on a high speed joy
Speaker 1: ride for some reason, and he gets into a catastrophic
Speaker 1: cratch cut two the Presidential ICEU, where Hammond is comatose.
Speaker 1: The prognosis is grim. Doctor, what is your opinion, I'm
Speaker 1: afraid he's beyond any human health. But then we see
Speaker 1: a tight shot of the hospital room's window curtain fluttering
Speaker 1: in the breeze, and there is flooded with light. It's
Speaker 1: a sign that the archangel Gabriel has entered the chamber
Speaker 1: to take possession of the President's body. When President Hammond
Speaker 1: comes to he is a changed man. He sits silently
Speaker 1: in his hospital bed, reading and thinking. He's no longer
Speaker 1: so slick. His hair is all messed up. It's a
Speaker 1: little bit like Bernie Sanders. Honestly, do not bring me
Speaker 1: into this, my bad Bernie. It's a nice impression. Do
Speaker 1: you think the point is Suddenly? The fictional President Hammond
Speaker 1: is a man of principle, careful thought, and deliberate action.
Speaker 1: He makes promises that sound a lot like some of
Speaker 1: FDR's New Deal initiatives. I propose, therefore, to create an
Speaker 1: army to be known as the Army of Construction. You'll
Speaker 1: be enlisted subjectuminentary disc Later that night, at his State
Speaker 1: of the Union address, President Hammond fires his entire cabinet,
Speaker 1: and then he forces Congress to adjourn. He declares, and
Speaker 1: of what I plan to do in the name of
Speaker 1: the people makes me a dictator. Then it is a
Speaker 1: dictatorship based on Jefferson's definition of democracy, a government for
Speaker 1: the greatest good of the greatest number. He broadcast his plans.
Speaker 1: He's going to stop foreclosures he's going to protect people's
Speaker 1: money in banks. I propose immediately to give direct aid
Speaker 1: to the fifty five million American people who depend entirely
Speaker 1: upon agriculture, without whose prosperity there can be no real
Speaker 1: prosperity in the United States. And all of these things
Speaker 1: that President Hammond decrees, he makes them happen to hell
Speaker 1: with checks and balances. He's here to cut past the
Speaker 1: red tape. He's getting stuff done. He's become an FDR
Speaker 1: flavored dictator, but a dictator who does some good things
Speaker 1: is still a dictator. He's consolidated power. But in the
Speaker 1: movie you don't see the nasty business that goes along
Speaker 1: with taking complete control of the nation. It's Hollywood selling
Speaker 1: softcore fascism. Boom love it. But what does that mean exactly? Fascism?
Speaker 1: I mean, more importantly, what did fascism mean during the
Speaker 1: interwar period. It's a cottage industry to answer this question.
Speaker 1: Whole books have been written and vibrantly disagreed with by
Speaker 1: other scholars of fascism just to get to the question
Speaker 1: of a definition. That's Richard Stiegman Gaul. He's a writer
Speaker 1: and associate history professor at Kent State He's written a
Speaker 1: bunch and spectacularly on this topic. Stigman Gaul defines fascism
Speaker 1: as a hypernationalist, violent movement committed to the restoration of
Speaker 1: national greatness and the belief that extra legal means are
Speaker 1: required to restore that national greatness. Let's break that down
Speaker 1: a bit. Stegman Goals as fascists are hypernationalists. They believe
Speaker 1: their nation is superior, and they must stop at nothing
Speaker 1: to advance and protect their version of it. They welcome violence.
Speaker 1: They're also importantly anti communist, and the last thing fascism
Speaker 1: insists that the legal state has been seized by people
Speaker 1: who don't belong there. In fact, Stigman Goals says, there's
Speaker 1: a good argument to be made that fascism is an
Speaker 1: American creation, that it first took shape right after the
Speaker 1: Civil War, when a bunch of Confederate soldiers established a
Speaker 1: little something called the ku Klux Klan. The KKK believe
Speaker 1: that the triumph of the Union over the Confederacy and
Speaker 1: the triumph of electoral equality for newly freed African Americans
Speaker 1: is a destruction of the real America right, and so
Speaker 1: they're willing to go to extra legal lengths murder, terror
Speaker 1: to regain their own supremacy. In other words, the government
Speaker 1: isn't serving my interests, so I'm going to force it
Speaker 1: to by any means necessary, you know, drain the swamp.
Speaker 1: The interwar period was a time when thousands of Americans,
Speaker 1: dozens of extremist groups, media personalities, and politicians. They all
Speaker 1: believe that democracy had failed. They felt like things had
Speaker 1: gotten so bad that the time had come to try
Speaker 1: something different. They wanted a dictator. After the break, we
Speaker 1: join a robing mob of disgruntled soldiers as they occupied
Speaker 1: the nation's capital, and we meet the General Leasi, a
Speaker 1: hard eyed, awesome named Jarhead who's traveled the world and
Speaker 1: is exactly no tolerance for tom foolery, a legend in
Speaker 1: his time, a bigots biggot Major General Smedley Darlington Butler. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I know we said we'd introduce you to Smedley,
Speaker 1: but not quite yet. First we have to set this stage.
Speaker 1: We'll go back one year to nineteen thirty two, before
Speaker 1: FDR gets elected. A lot of in the US are
Speaker 1: flirting with fascism. One group in particular, veterans of the
Speaker 1: First World War. They're broke, they're angry, and they hold
Speaker 1: Uncle Sam responsible. Three hundred veterans of the Great War
Speaker 1: from Portland, Oregon mobilized to march on Washington and lobby
Speaker 1: for immediate payment of their war bonuses, the money the
Speaker 1: US government promised for their service during World War One.
Speaker 1: There's greedy vats. It's always more and more and more
Speaker 1: with them. Oh wowur smoke filled room dwelling plutocrats are back.
Speaker 1: Do you guys have any advice for the veterans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: here's one, be born rich, good advice. These veterans piled
Speaker 1: onto eastbound free trains, vacant cattle cars, still stinking of manure,
Speaker 1: packing everything they needed in those little broomstick hung hobo's suitcase.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about. They're they're called bindles
Speaker 1: in case you know you ever need to impress a hobo. Oh,
Speaker 1: I promise you I won't. Yes. Along with ante and taxes,
Speaker 1: that's a word we do not need to know. High five.
Speaker 1: They call themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force the BEEF, a
Speaker 1: callback to the American Expeditionary Force that landed in France.
Speaker 1: As word of the BF spreads veterans from every corner
Speaker 1: of the country, pack up their families and head for
Speaker 1: the capital. Two hundred from San Francisco, three hundred from Cleveland,
Speaker 1: five hundred from Chicago, and exactly none from my compound
Speaker 1: and East Egg because me and the b Accoontms have
Speaker 1: got better things will do. Look, honestly, these veterans got
Speaker 1: a raw deal. They're converging on the nation's capital because
Speaker 1: their military service paid them virtually nothing, leaving them badly
Speaker 1: in the hole when they got home. During this time
Speaker 1: of poverty and misery, these veterans are amongst the most
Speaker 1: vulnerable people in the entire country. After the war, the
Speaker 1: government promised money in the form of bonus certificates that
Speaker 1: weren't payable until nineteen forty five. Now that may not
Speaker 1: seem like a big deal, but ask yourself, how much
Speaker 1: value would you place on your paycheck if you couldn't
Speaker 1: redeem it until twenty thirty six. The vets called these
Speaker 1: certificates the two Stone Bonus because most everybody would be
Speaker 1: dead before they could collect them. The first wave of
Speaker 1: BF soldiers arrives in DC in late May. Hundreds take
Speaker 1: shelter in the ruins of demolished buildings along Pennsylvania. In
Speaker 1: Constitution Avenue, not too far from the White House. Thousands
Speaker 1: of others built a camp on the Anacostia Flats. Mobile
Speaker 1: food carts provided by the War College find them and
Speaker 1: stew and coffee. They also got their hands on lumber,
Speaker 1: nails and tin, empty bedsacks, and tons of hay for filling.
Speaker 1: A vast encampment of tents and shanties take shape, stretching
Speaker 1: across the skyline, and the Salvation Army sets up a
Speaker 1: library near the entrance of the camp. Sounds dusty. Newspapermen
Speaker 1: remarked that the occupying crowd is governed by the military's
Speaker 1: code of discipline. Walter Waters, the leader of the Beef,
Speaker 1: gave his men three rules. No panhandling, no liquor, and
Speaker 1: no radical talk. Waters also led the Khaki Shirts, which
Speaker 1: was often described as a closely knit semi military organization.
Speaker 1: The Khaki Shirts called themselves one hundred percent American, and
Speaker 1: they would pounce on any suspected Commies. They would haul
Speaker 1: the accused before a kangaroo court and sentenced them to
Speaker 1: belt lashings and expulsion from the camps. So what you're saying, Ben,
Speaker 1: is that if Walter Waters wasn't an actual fascist, he
Speaker 1: was like fascist adjacent. Yeah, you know, alex I maybe
Speaker 1: relatively new at this coup planning business, but I sniffed
Speaker 1: some real potential in this massive gathering of disenchanted veterans. Well,
Speaker 1: that might be the stew The vets had really gone
Speaker 1: through it. They were deeply disillusioned by the grinding misery
Speaker 1: of trench warfare in Europe, and then they come home
Speaker 1: to a country sinking into crisis, and they're being disrespected
Speaker 1: by political leaders who refused to pay their war bonuses.
Speaker 1: Who was overwhelming and traumatic, and that lasted for decades,
Speaker 1: even in the thirties. It's still the long tale of
Speaker 1: World War One, and not just the United States, but
Speaker 1: in Europe particularly for example, Italian veterans of the war
Speaker 1: came home with the same disillusionment, but instead of being disrespected,
Speaker 1: Italian vets were lifted up by their political leaders. Historian
Speaker 1: Katie Holt told us about it. What Americans sur in
Speaker 1: Italy and the rise of fascism was kind of against
Speaker 1: all arts, the fascists having a very different response to
Speaker 1: the wartime experience, wearing the veteran status those who were
Speaker 1: veterans on their sleeves, retaining the values of patriotism and
Speaker 1: apparently retaining values of service. That whole experience in Italy
Speaker 1: that American observerst sorce seemed like a perfect counter to
Speaker 1: the disillusionment the Americans had fell amongst themselves after the
Speaker 1: First Tweld War. In just a few years, the FASCISTI
Speaker 1: as they were known, formed an ascendant political movement, the
Speaker 1: National Fascist Party. Benito Mussolini, the organization's head hauncho, called
Speaker 1: for a strong man to revive Italy. All over the country,
Speaker 1: armed vigilante squads known as black Shirts organized to keep
Speaker 1: the streets clear of socialist, labor, radicals and anarchist Mussolini
Speaker 1: used the black Shirts to knock off potential rivals, and
Speaker 1: they became known for extreme violets. The FASCISTI sound fashitty,
Speaker 1: well language, alex We're a family show. In October nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty two, flanked by some thirty thousand black Shirts, Mussolini
Speaker 1: marched on Rome, all but seizing control of the government.
Speaker 1: At least according to the propaganda and two Americans. For
Speaker 1: fifteen years or so, fascism doesn't seem like such a
Speaker 1: bad thing. The new National Fascist Party was really getting
Speaker 1: stuff done, and so what you start to see that
Speaker 1: many people look to fascist Italy and say, look what
Speaker 1: Missleini's doing. In fascist Italy. He's creating philips, he's doing
Speaker 1: public works, he's producing a welfare state that enables great
Speaker 1: maternal aid, infants care for working mothers, and he's appearing
Speaker 1: to create a very functional social safety net and a
Speaker 1: welfare state. Americans, on the other hand, still felt hoodwinked
Speaker 1: into joining the war. Then the stock market crashed and
Speaker 1: the Great Depression set in. In present Hoover did basically
Speaker 1: nothing to help Americans weather the storm. Against that batchup,
Speaker 1: you have many Americans who almost provocatively say, what we
Speaker 1: mean right now is the dictator. And it's really their
Speaker 1: way of saying that democracy isn't serving us. Democracy hasn't
Speaker 1: been doing anything. People haven't been really going to the
Speaker 1: polls or haven't been going to the post for the
Speaker 1: right reason for the best part of the decade, and
Speaker 1: so we might as well have a dictator in the
Speaker 1: United States. I'll Duche's Squadristi, the Black Shirts, and later
Speaker 1: Hitler's Brown Shirts all became a model for American prutal
Speaker 1: fascist organizations. The White Shirt Crusaders, the Khaki Shirts, the
Speaker 1: Gray Shirts, the Silver Legion. At this point, they're going
Speaker 1: to run out of colors. Bat yeah. The Defenders of
Speaker 1: the Christian Faith, the American Nationalist Confederation, the National Gentile League.
Speaker 1: They popped up everywhere. They were nativist, populist. Some held
Speaker 1: aspirations greater than garden variety terror and violence, like holding
Speaker 1: public office and transforming their world views into actual legislation.
Speaker 1: They wanted to force Jewish people into ghettos. They wanted
Speaker 1: to limit citizenship and find ways to exclude large numbers
Speaker 1: of what they called undesirables from voting. For example, the
Speaker 1: Black Legion, a night riding terror organization, emerged from the Midwest,
Speaker 1: spinning out of a KKK security force. They attracted members
Speaker 1: who didn't believe the clan's methods were extreme enough. What yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, right. And these weren't just civilians. This group
Speaker 1: was rumored to include veterans, police chiefs, a city councilman,
Speaker 1: even officials from the Department of Justice. In short, the
Speaker 1: people who were supposed to keep the peace conspired to
Speaker 1: sow chaos. The Black Legion murdered and kidnapped with impunity.
Speaker 1: They even had a dedicated arson squad. And then there
Speaker 1: was the American Legion. By American Legion, Alex, do you
Speaker 1: mean the old guys with the wood paneled clubhouses who
Speaker 1: sometimes sponsor Little League? Yeah, yeah, very different organization back then.
Speaker 1: No discussion of American fascism in the Inner War period
Speaker 1: is complete without a discussion of the American Legion. Most
Speaker 1: of the historians we spoke with about fascism pointed to
Speaker 1: the American Legion as being a close cousin of Italy's
Speaker 1: Black Shirts. Here's historian Richard Steigmanoligan. The idea is, you know,
Speaker 1: so many men have sacrificed for the nation, we should
Speaker 1: found an organization that is designed to represent their interests.
Speaker 1: And the American Legions various flirtations with fascism already are
Speaker 1: a huge instance in which soldiers, or perhaps more accurately,
Speaker 1: ex soldiers, find themselves drawn to fascism. I mean, you've
Speaker 1: got very explicit and open proclamations by the American Legion
Speaker 1: itself that quote unquote, we are the American SQUADRISKI, named,
Speaker 1: of course after Mussolini's black shirted vigilantes. The American Legion
Speaker 1: were such fans of Mussolini that they invited him to
Speaker 1: speak at their convention in nineteen twenty three. He declined, Now,
Speaker 1: these American Legion guys weren't all talk either. The Legion
Speaker 1: practiced in aggressive anti communist vigilantism. In nineteen nineteen and Centralia, Washington,
Speaker 1: there was this notorious street battle between the American Legion
Speaker 1: and members of a far left labor activism group called
Speaker 1: the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblis.
Speaker 1: A major fracas broke out at an Armistice Day parade.
Speaker 1: It culminated in the death of several legionnaires and the
Speaker 1: kidnapping of a Wobbling named Wesley Everest from the local jail.
Speaker 1: They lynched it and hanged his body from a bridge.
Speaker 1: This was gruesome, gruesome stuff. So remember that massive disenchanted
Speaker 1: vets converging on the nation's capitol in mid June nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty two. There's no doubt that some portion of the
Speaker 1: crowd carries a membership for the American Legion, the Black Legion,
Speaker 1: or the Silver Legion. Pick your proto fascist mob. It's
Speaker 1: starting to make the hairs on the back of my neck.
Speaker 1: Stand up picture in a blazing hot day, humid with
Speaker 1: the scorching sun. The Bonus army is gathered in Washington, DC.
Speaker 1: All of these guys packed together in close quarters on
Speaker 1: that blistering concrete. There's palpable tension in the air. They're
Speaker 1: waiting for news from Capitol Hill because Congress has finally
Speaker 1: begun voting on the war Bonus Bill. They've been waiting
Speaker 1: years to be paid for their service, and if Congress
Speaker 1: passes the bill, tens of thousands of vets could finally
Speaker 1: be on a path out of hunger and poverty. The
Speaker 1: New York Times reports a really visible sag in the
Speaker 1: mood the veterans. No defeat is all but certain, and
Speaker 1: if by some miracle, the Senate decides it's a good
Speaker 1: idea to write war veterans a two point four billion
Speaker 1: dollar check. President Hoover is absolutely gonna Vito. The discussion
Speaker 1: on the floor of the Senate Chamber lasts all day. Inside,
Speaker 1: the senators can hear the crowd surrounding the building. At
Speaker 1: nine thirty pm, Walter Waters, the leader of the gathered veterans,
Speaker 1: comes onto the steps of the Capitol and announces that
Speaker 1: the bill has been defeated, sixty two to eighteen. These
Speaker 1: are hopeless men with hopeless families, They've traveled hundreds of
Speaker 1: miles to lobby for a life changing sum of cash
Speaker 1: that they believe they rightly deserve, and their futures are
Speaker 1: being decided by a bunch of rich senators. So what
Speaker 1: do you think happens next? Oh? I know these homeless
Speaker 1: fellows are going to burn down the Capitol. Wait no,
Speaker 1: it looks like they're gonna sing America the beautiful Furber
Speaker 1: Waves orperble mounds. Man. You know, as singers, they sure
Speaker 1: do make wonderful hobos. A month passes, sixteen thousand plus
Speaker 1: veterans remain in DC. By mid July, the bonus Marcher's
Speaker 1: desperation grows acute. On the last day Congress is in session,
Speaker 1: thousands of angry veterans returned to the hill surrounding the Capitol,
Speaker 1: forcing terrified legislators to escape through underground tunnels. So is
Speaker 1: this the pot where they stormed the Capitol? Not quite. Instead,
Speaker 1: President Hoover, true to his name, is going to evict
Speaker 1: the beef from Washington, DC begone. Dms by, Now you're
Speaker 1: wondering why has Ben Bolin dragged me into this fitted Hooverville.
Speaker 1: I thought this was supposed to be a podcast about
Speaker 1: a plot hatched by a cabal of megawealthy industrialists to
Speaker 1: overthrow an American president. Right, Okay, perfect timing, Alex. Here
Speaker 1: it comes the reason we're here. He's about to trudge
Speaker 1: through the ankle deep muck of Anacostia Flats and straight
Speaker 1: into our story. A two time Medal of Honor recipient
Speaker 1: and the holder of the Marine corps highest honor, the
Speaker 1: Brevett Medal, the most decorated marine and the history of
Speaker 1: the service at the time, he is a legit celeb
Speaker 1: Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, and yes, that is his
Speaker 1: full and very fancy name. He climbs onto a stage
Speaker 1: in front of a growing crowd of bonus army vets hi.
Speaker 1: He's a wiry five foot eight with ramrod plusture, and
Speaker 1: his nickname is Old Gimlet Eye because in those days,
Speaker 1: gimlet eye was an expression to signify a piercing stare.
Speaker 1: He sports a massive tattoo of the Marine Corps Loban
Speaker 1: anchor on his chest and goes from my throat to
Speaker 1: my gun. Yeah, filthy animal. What Smedley Butler is truly
Speaker 1: famous for, however, is the care he takes of other Marines.
Speaker 1: Here I clipped out the latest dick placing for you.
Speaker 1: It's a real nail binder. Enjoy but he was passed
Speaker 1: up for the role of Marine Corps Commandants, the top
Speaker 1: job shortly after he retired from the Corps. Now at
Speaker 1: fifty years old, Smedley Butler finds himself in the midst
Speaker 1: of an existential reckoning. Who am I when I'm not
Speaker 1: doing nice things for vets like clipping comic strips. He
Speaker 1: stays out on the road for months at a time,
Speaker 1: giving speeches to veteran groups for two hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: bucks a pop. He gives a big cut of every
Speaker 1: paycheck to the veteran's unemployment fund. You see to him,
Speaker 1: the men in this bonus army crowd, these are his men,
Speaker 1: and they feel the same way about him. There's a
Speaker 1: loyalty here, one that cannot be bought. There are four
Speaker 1: and a half million veterans in the United States. Smedley
Speaker 1: thinks they could be a powerful voting block if only
Speaker 1: they banded together. When Smedley Butler has introduced, the crowd
Speaker 1: greets him with a quote enthusiastic roar of a claim
Speaker 1: that echoes through Washington like thunder. Take it from me.
Speaker 1: This is the greatest demonstration of the excuse me, actor
Speaker 1: who's playing Smedley Butler? Why do you want? We have
Speaker 1: an actual recording of Smedley's voice to play here go
Speaker 1: all right, then I'm gonna go take five. Okay, So
Speaker 1: here's the clip. Take it from me. This is the
Speaker 1: greatest demonstration of Americanism we've ever had, pure Americans willing
Speaker 1: to take this beating as you've taken it. Stand right, steady,
Speaker 1: You keep every law, and why the hell shouldn't the
Speaker 1: hell yeah, I've done all the bleeding for this country
Speaker 1: and for this law and this constitution. It's over. The
Speaker 1: beef soldiers won't be getting their money, but the Bonus
Speaker 1: Army hangs in DC for another week and a half.
Speaker 1: On the morning of July twenty eighth, the cops begin
Speaker 1: to yank men from the ruined buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue,
Speaker 1: the greatest concentration of fighting troops in Washington since eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five, to rout the Bonus Army from government property,
Speaker 1: which they have been occupying without permission. Walter Waters, their leader,
Speaker 1: urges the men to cooperate and go peacefully, but some
Speaker 1: veterans start throwing rocks at the police. Soon two veterans
Speaker 1: are shot dead near the White House. General Douglas MacArthur
Speaker 1: shows up in an olive green field coat and ten
Speaker 1: knickers and wears his hat jauntily askewed. That's right, that
Speaker 1: General MacArthur, one of the country's most recognized military leaders today,
Speaker 1: though he's her to crack some American skulls. He's got
Speaker 1: six hundred armed soldiers and six tanks, and Macarthurs say so.
Speaker 1: The cavalry moves on the ruined buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue,
Speaker 1: unleashing a barrage of tear gas on beef occupied buildings.
Speaker 1: And so they're being forced out of their shack by
Speaker 1: smoke bomb and tear gas hurled by the troops who
Speaker 1: have been called out by the President of the United States.
Speaker 1: The infantry follows with rifle mounted bayonets. Beef soldiers put
Speaker 1: up a fight, but not much of one. In the evening,
Speaker 1: having won the first battle, MacArthur directs his troops to
Speaker 1: torch every tent in the beef camp. It's a spectacle
Speaker 1: unparalleled in the history of the country. A day of
Speaker 1: bloodshed and riot reminiscent of actual conditions in France in seventeen.
Speaker 1: President Hoover watches all of this. He sees the fires
Speaker 1: burn from a white house window, and then he goes
Speaker 1: to bed. The light from those tuns is soy bright,
Speaker 1: you guys, But not to worry. I got my eyemasky
Speaker 1: kittens night. The violence leaves at least two veterans dead
Speaker 1: and at least two more veterans severely injured with gunshotings.
Speaker 1: Dozens more are hospitalized with concussions, burns, and gashes. People
Speaker 1: are wounded by bricks and hatchets. The wife of a
Speaker 1: veteran from Dallas is run over by a cavalry horse.
Speaker 1: A fourteen year old boy is treated for serious saber wounds.
Speaker 1: He's not the only one. Gradually, the Bonus Army realizes
Speaker 1: that they'd better be good, and a general retreat begins.
Speaker 1: Thousands of vets hobble away from the nation's capital to Johnstown,
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania to regroup. I don't found the nine thousand Bonus
Speaker 1: a good. Immediately threw out tents and shacks on themselves
Speaker 1: and finally beaten down. But unwilling to accept defeat, the
Speaker 1: beef once again ask Major General Smedley Butler to take command,
Speaker 1: at least according to the newspapers, while the scenes of
Speaker 1: MacArthur's soldiers gassing and burning Great War veterans in Smedley,
Speaker 1: he just tells the paper the b ef men should
Speaker 1: return to their homes. Major General Smedley Butler is, however,
Speaker 1: far less reticent about attacking President Herbert Hoover. God, Smedley Butler,
Speaker 1: leave me alone. I don't come to your encampment and
Speaker 1: tell your veterans what to do. So you can imagine
Speaker 1: Smedley's delight when the press flays Hoover for his treatment
Speaker 1: of the vets. Even the Washington Daily News, sort of
Speaker 1: the Newsmax of its day writes, what a pitiful spectacle
Speaker 1: if the army must be called out to make war
Speaker 1: on unarmed citizens, this is no longer America. Smedley Butler
Speaker 1: goes on the road stumps frift Yard during the thirty
Speaker 1: two presidential campaign, declares himself a Hoover for ex president
Speaker 1: Republican and you can quote me on that. Look. Smedley
Speaker 1: is a demagogue. There's no real other way to put it.
Speaker 1: He has a hard line populist message, speaking directly to veterans,
Speaker 1: From time to time he does lectures on the same
Speaker 1: bill as legendary rabble rouser Huey Long All. In all,
Speaker 1: Smedley gives about forty anti Hoover speeches. In the lead
Speaker 1: up to the nineteen thirty two election, mosebf Boys were
Speaker 1: cashed in the battlefield of France in nineteen eighteen and
Speaker 1: again in the streets of Washington and thirty two, And
Speaker 1: when Americans went to the polls in November of nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty two, Roosevelt's election was more of a tsunami than
Speaker 1: a landslide. Smedley Butler spent the election at his home
Speaker 1: in Newton Square, Pennsylvania, New fdr Victory party for ull Smedley,
Speaker 1: though he's not the gloating type n by day, just
Speaker 1: saving the country like I do. Yet, despite all the
Speaker 1: miles Smedley logged for Roosevelt, after the election, the President
Speaker 1: elect doesn't want anything to do with him. It feels
Speaker 1: a little bit like there are no more battles to
Speaker 1: fight for Smedley. He's out to pasture. He writes a
Speaker 1: book about his Marine Corps adventures called Old Gimlet Eye.
Speaker 1: He reads the newspaper in his easy chair. He delivers
Speaker 1: speeches to any group that will have him. The Women's
Speaker 1: Club of East Orange, New Jersey, the Bristol Father's Association,
Speaker 1: Beautiful m I right, the New England Iron and Hardware Association,
Speaker 1: Nice Hammers, everybody. Roosevelt wins the election in November, but
Speaker 1: he is not inaugurated until March. The intervening months are
Speaker 1: the hardest of the depression, and Hoover is still doing nothing.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I am like so sick of this job.
Speaker 1: People were desperate for the government to just help them
Speaker 1: get by. Tell me about it. I'm seeing hardship at
Speaker 1: every damn stop of my speaking tours, and so Smedley.
Speaker 1: Butler's speeches take on strong undertones of class conflict. While
Speaker 1: decorating veterans with purple hearts, he tells a Memorial Day
Speaker 1: crowd in Passaic, New Jersey, this isn't just a two
Speaker 1: centimental Even JP Morgan can't buy one man. Finally help comes.
Speaker 1: After taking office, Roosevelt enacts emergency financial reforms. Yeah that's great,
Speaker 1: But what's all this financial balderdash have to do with me?
Speaker 1: I got nothing to do with us fat cat bankers. Well,
Speaker 1: that may seem like the case major General. But one
Speaker 1: day in July nineteen thirty three, you're sitting in your
Speaker 1: favorite easy chair. I am just reading the early edition
Speaker 1: of the paper, Okay and Butler Residence, Major General Smellie
Speaker 1: Darlington Butler speaking. When you answer, it's a man who
Speaker 1: says he's from the American Legion. He says someone's on
Speaker 1: their way up from a nearby Legion hall. They'll be
Speaker 1: there soon, and they're requesting an audience. And then how
Speaker 1: is it there's a knock on the door. Yeah, I heard,
Speaker 1: and for you, Major General Smedley Butler. Nothing will ever
Speaker 1: be the scene? Why is it? Something bad? Sorry? Smedley,
Speaker 1: no spoilers, It'll have to wait till the next episode.
Speaker 1: A dry up. Next time on Let's Start a Coup?
Speaker 1: Who is Smedley Butler? Really? You're so smart? You tell me.
Speaker 1: Tune in as we explore the seamy underside of Smedley's career.
Speaker 1: Wartz and dol To ask why did so many evil
Speaker 1: people genuinely think of him as their kind of hero?
Speaker 1: Join us to find out. Let's Start a Coup as
Speaker 1: a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. Our
Speaker 1: hosts are Alex French and Ben Bolin. The show is
Speaker 1: written by Alex French, with additional writing by Joken Osian.
Speaker 1: Original music and scoring by Joken Ocean. Character voices by
Speaker 1: Joken Ocean. Sounds like someone didn't get enough attention and
Speaker 1: they're a childhood Elis Buttas is our producer. Emilia Brouck
Speaker 1: is our senior producer. Sound design, additional scoring, mixing and
Speaker 1: mastering by Alexander Overington. Our story editor is Lacy Roberts.
Speaker 1: Fact checking by Austin Thompson. Sean Riggins is our recording engineer.
Speaker 1: Recorded at Tune Welders in Atlanta, Georgia. Executive producers are
Speaker 1: Jason English, Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley. Special
Speaker 1: thanks to Ethan Trucks and Adam Overett. Sound licensed from
Speaker 1: Critical Past and the Museum and University of South Carolina
Speaker 1: Moving Image Research Collection. Additional clips courtesy of the National
Speaker 1: Archives and Records Administration. If you're enjoying the show, help
Speaker 1: us get the word out by leaving a rating in
Speaker 1: your favorite podcast app, and if you're not buzz off,
Speaker 1: tune in again next time for Let's Start a Coup
Speaker 1: School of Humans