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4.5
Smedley Butler was one of the most decorated American soldiers ever. He won the Medal of Honor, twice! He served in the Marine Corps for 33 years, and was on virtually all the battlefields that the United States participated in during the early years of the 20th century, from China and the Philippines, to France during World War I, and then on to be an "enforcer" for Wall Street in the "Banana Republics" in the `20's. He clearly "paid his dues"; his opinions, which obviously changed, have much merit; he ultimately came to the conclusion that he had been used by the "powers that be." Even after resigning from the Marine Corps in 1931, he claims they still wanted to use him, with certain Wall Street interests trying to recruit him into a plot to overthrow "the Socialist," FDR, and install a fascist dictatorship, per Congressional testimony. He even developed a rather sardonic view towards the medals that he won: "Napoleon once said: `All men are enamored of decorations...they positively hunger for them.' So, by developing the Napoleonic system-the medal business- the government learned it could get soldiers for less money, because the boys like to be decorated. Until the Civil War there were no medals."This edition contains five essays, and is the one to purchase. It contains the title essay, "War is a Racket," which is only 28 pages long. There are two other essays by Butler, "Common Sense Neutrality" which was a plea to stay out of what would become the Second World War (although he had carried the American flag throughout the world, he ended up in the isolationist camp), and "An Amendment for Peace." There is an introductory peace by Adam Parfrey which provides additional details on the plot to overthrow FDR, and the book concludes with some black and white pictures on the horrors of war, certainly updating Goya, since some are truly horrific, including the veteran with much of his face missing.The title essay is a polemic, and it is short, but it is rich in ideas, so many of which are carefully air-brushed out of the main stream media. Butler commences by stating how many Americans grew truly rich because of the First World War: 21,000 became millionaires, or billionaires. He then goes on to identify some of the corporations, starting with du Pont, whose profits rose over pre-war levels by astounding percentages (for du Pont, it was more than 950%). He says it quite simply: "We must take the profit out of war." And proposes the mechanism: pay the corporate titans, and all others, the same wage as those in the trenches, which was $30 a month at the time, for the duration of the war. In this manner, they could show their patriotism, and they still have the advantage of not being shot at! Yes, "conscript capital." Butler also addresses how President Wilson, who had campaigned in 1916 on the platform that he had "kept us out of war," suddenly declared war six months after his re-election. (Ah, how history repeats, with LBJ proclaiming that "American boys should not be fighting Asian wars" and within six months, he too, would be sending the troops). Butler says that the reason, "stripped of its diplomatic language" was that an allied commission saw Wilson, said their cause was lost, and the American suppliers of their weaponry would not get their money back! So...His essay on neutrality is also an interesting read, though in retrospect, the received wisdom is on the side of those who saw the ultimate evil of the Nazis, and felt it should have been crushed as early as possible.Butler's work remains an essential read for anyone... and should that not be all of us...who wonders how we seem to get into wars so easily, yet have so much difficulty ending them. A very suitable read for Veterans' Day. 5-stars.
