Real World Conspiracies

[unbreakable]

Cracked has become one of my top ten web sites in only a few months, for many reasons.  Anyway, check this out-

7 Insane Conspiracies That Actually Happened

#7.The Business Plot

The Plan:
In 1933, group of wealthy businessmen that allegedly included the heads of Chase Bank, GM, Goodyear, Standard Oil, the DuPont family and Senator Prescott Bush tried to recruit Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler to lead a military coup against President FDR and install a fascist dictatorship in the United States. And yes, we're talking about the same Prescott Bush who fathered one US President and grandfathered another one.

How did that work out?
A good rule of thumb: never trust a man named Smedley to run your hostile military coup for you. Besides being no fan of fascism, Smedley Butler was both a patriot and a vocal FDR supporter. Apparently none of these criminal masterminds noticed that their prospective point man had actively stumped for FDR in 1932.

Smedley spilled the beans to a congressional committee in 1934. Everyone he accused of being a conspirator vehemently denied it, and none of them were brought up on criminal charges. Still, the House McCormack-Dickstein Committee did at least acknowledge the existence of the conspiracy, which ended up never getting past the initial planning stages.

Though many of the people who had allegedly backed the Business Plot also maintained financial ties with Nazi Germany up through America's entry into World War II. But at least the United States never ended up becoming a fascist dictatorship (unless you ask Ron Paul supporters).

The lesson here? Fascist or not, you don't fuck around with guys named Smedley or Dickstein.

[Doopri]

while ive never heard about this particular event before, i am familiar with smedley butler.  really interesting guy who had a, shall we say, less than favorable opinion of some of the incursions he led into latin america.  the guy was also not a fan of united fruit, let me tell you what.  one of his more choice lines is "capitalism is a racket" - and he basically goes on to write about how he was a "goon" on the front lines

But at least the United States never ended up becoming a fascist dictatorship (unless you ask Ron Paul supporters).

this is REALLY, REALLY funny   and from an historical standpoint, if anyone were to read some writers of the time (early 1900s until hmm maybe just past fdrs time, maybe a bit earlier), they would find the fascism talked about (at least from an economic standpoint) mirrors pretty much every western democracy of today.  in the very least they would have though us all socialists.  today we just call it big business or monopolistic capitalism

*edit* oh hell ill annoy everyone with "an historical"

[unbreakable]

They talk about this in "The Straight Dope".  It reminded me of this thread, so I figured I'd share...

Oh, Smedley: Was there really a fascist plot to overthrow the United States government?

Dear Cecil:

I was reading a Wikipedia article about two-time Medal of Honor winners the other day, one of whom was General Smedley Butler. He claimed to have unmasked the "business plot," also known as the "White House putsch," a scheme to install a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. Supposedly some congressional committee confirmed Butler's claims. Did the "business plot" really exist? If so, how come no one has ever heard of it? --Brent, Urbana, Illinois

Then there is a pretty good write-up of what Cecil views as The Straight Dope (cue scary music).