In this episode, CJ profiles Major General Smedley Darlington Butler of the United States Marine Corps, probably most famous for being a very highly decorated Marine (the most decorated at the time of his death in 1940), and for writing War is a Racket. Butler was a very complex man to say the least, and CJ covers the good, the bad, the ugly and, of course, the dangerous about his life and legacy.
Join CJ as he discusses:
- A brief look at Smedley’s family history & childhood, to his joining of the Marines in 1898 during the Spanish-American War
- Subsequent services in places as wide-ranging as the Philippines, China, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, Quantico, Philadelphia, San Diego, and China (again), as he rose through the ranks from Second Lieutenant all the way to Major General
- Smedley’s increasing disillusionment with the ulterior motives of American foreign policy and military interventionism
- His retirement in 1931, and the last 9 years of his life, during which he became an ever-more radical, outspoken critic of American militarism and imperialism, right up until his death in June of 1940, including his exposure of an alleged Wall Street plot to overthrow the FDR administration, and his authorship of War is a Racket
- A little bit about Smedley’s legacy and why CJ considers him a DHP Hero
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