American Conspiracies: The Big-Money Plot to Overthrow FDR

The Incident: A coup attempt by some of the titans of Wall Street, to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1934 and put a military man in charge of the country.

The Official Word: The plotters were foiled when the man they selected, Major General Smedley Butler, blew the whistle to Congress.

Ventura's Take: This was an attempt to turn America into a fascist country run by corporate powers, but it's been ignored in most official histories of the Great Depression.

My Take: Some of the things you can learn about our history from reading books and watching movies like National Treasure are baffling. Before reading this i had zero knowledge about this ever occurring. Yet i do feel that this should be more known about. Thinking about from a big business standpoint, the New Deal was a stab in the wallet from the federal government. Aside from these Gordon Gecko-like people, most of the US population was very very poor. FDR's new deal was written to aid the masses, rather than the few. The plan seemed full proof, but the plotters did not think that their man, Smedley Butler, would have a change of heart. Butler gave a speech to Legion veterans and explained the process. Butler privately speculated that there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on FDR a few weeks before his inauguration. Butler believed that it was orchestrated by a man of big business. Whats shocking to me is how these people could try to murder the man who essentially brought the US back from being on the brink of chaos. Major Smedley Butler should be regarded as an American hero.