1 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:16,040 Speaker 1: This is an I Heeart original. I'm Ben Bullin and 2 00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:18,680 Speaker 1: I'm Alex French to bring you the story. We've done 3 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:21,640 Speaker 1: all the research, read the book. Wait, wait, Alex, we 4 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:25,600 Speaker 1: have to do the ads first, Smedley, you ready, I 5 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:28,760 Speaker 1: guess three two one. Today's show is brought to you 6 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:32,480 Speaker 1: by Dinner in a Box, you know, Alex and Bend. 7 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:36,160 Speaker 1: During my illustrious military career, a hunk of hard attack 8 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:39,200 Speaker 1: and cold cairn of Beanie Wheenie was about as gourmet 9 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: as we got on the front lines. Now that I'm retired, 10 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: I find myself hankering for elevated fair I can prepare 11 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: in the convenience of my own kitchen, delicious dishes like 12 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: chicken tinga tacos curry spiced chick peoples. I can't do this? 13 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: Who writes this? No? No, it was great. Let's try 14 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:07,480 Speaker 1: it again, maybe a little slower, you know, really mel 15 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:12,400 Speaker 1: that curry? Yeah? Your two are really trying me today. 16 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,000 Speaker 1: What's got you so angry? Major General Butler? I'm just 17 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:17,960 Speaker 1: so sick of this this show and you two for 18 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:21,360 Speaker 1: three episodes. You've gotten everything about me wrong. You're calling 19 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:24,280 Speaker 1: me corrupt. They're all corrupt. Let me tell you about 20 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:27,680 Speaker 1: your precious FDR. His grandpa Delano made a fortune selling 21 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:32,040 Speaker 1: opium in China. FDR is the most meschant marker out there. 22 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:33,960 Speaker 1: And all I want to do right now is walk 23 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:37,440 Speaker 1: across this recording studio and stick my size seven right 24 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: up your ass. I mean thirteen thirteen. It looks like 25 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:43,320 Speaker 1: a seven. It's a wide seven though. Come here, let's 26 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: tick a few deep breaths, sir big inhale exhale yea good. Okay, Now, 27 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:53,400 Speaker 1: please don't quit. We genuinely want to hear about what 28 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:55,480 Speaker 1: you think we're doing wrong, and we can talk about 29 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:57,120 Speaker 1: it for the entirety of the episode if you'd like. 30 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 1: Please Okay, I guess, But first, can you please finish 31 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,840 Speaker 1: reading the ads? There's more? Yeah, but then we can 32 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,600 Speaker 1: start the show, I promise. What the fuck is a 33 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:16,480 Speaker 1: tinger anyway? All right? Is the engineer ready? We're rolling? Oh? Actually, yeah, 34 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: I like this one, not just saying that. Okay, here 35 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:22,520 Speaker 1: we go. During my career in the United States Marine Corps, 36 00:02:22,640 --> 00:02:24,840 Speaker 1: I sometimes went weeks at a time without a bath. 37 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:27,800 Speaker 1: That's why now, after a long day of making the 38 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 1: world safe for capitalism, there's no greater reward than a 39 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,360 Speaker 1: long soak in a scalding hot bath. Ethel puts some 40 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:40,200 Speaker 1: shard on the victrola. I light some candles and switch 41 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: off the lights. I close my eyes and immediately can 42 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:47,640 Speaker 1: feel my problems melting away. The tub is my sanctuary 43 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:50,840 Speaker 1: and the ultimate ingredient for a truly decadent soak is 44 00:02:50,920 --> 00:02:54,640 Speaker 1: bath in a bubbles sumptuous coconut cream bubble bath rub 45 00:02:54,720 --> 00:02:59,840 Speaker 1: a dub dub, maggots. This is not a side of 46 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: you we expected to see, Smithley. Oh what can I say? 47 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,400 Speaker 1: I do my best thinking in the bathtub, just like 48 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:08,840 Speaker 1: Angie Landsberry, God rest or soul. Tell us about a 49 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:11,600 Speaker 1: heavy decision you made while enjoying a soak. We're trying 50 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: to pump me for intel at a vulnerable time. Well, 51 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:17,440 Speaker 1: we do still have a show to produce, all right, 52 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:23,320 Speaker 1: You really want to know? It was thirty three, Yes, 53 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three. You've been talking about it all season. 54 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:29,960 Speaker 1: The shadowy cabal of filthy rich bankers and industrialist approached 55 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:34,160 Speaker 1: me about season control of the US government. They offered money, power, 56 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:38,080 Speaker 1: an opportunity to lead again. These tycoons come to me 57 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:41,960 Speaker 1: on American soil and ask me to take control. Figuring 58 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: out what to do required care and thought. I sat 59 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: in that decision for a very long time. Well that 60 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,480 Speaker 1: was a two bath bomb night, if ever there was one. 61 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 1: Where did you even begin by imagining what America might 62 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:57,760 Speaker 1: look like if those cockroachers got their way. What they 63 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:00,640 Speaker 1: wanted was to put in place a system benefiting a 64 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: precious view at great cost to the little guy. I 65 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: could see that spiraling out of control, armed malicious patrol, 66 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 1: the countryside, Jews being rounded up and forced into ghettos, 67 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:15,600 Speaker 1: organized purges, kangaroo courts, the death of descent, tyranny. And 68 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:17,840 Speaker 1: then I thought back on my life, all of those 69 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:22,240 Speaker 1: years in China, in Central America and the Caribbean, terrorizing natives, 70 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:25,640 Speaker 1: watching my marines die face down in the mud. Also, 71 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 1: some fat cats can get fatter. I thought about my grandchildren. 72 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 1: How would they see me? I considered my place in history. Yes, 73 00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:36,160 Speaker 1: my ego is just that wide as wide is my 74 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:41,280 Speaker 1: super wide sized sevens. I think about legacy. But answering 75 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:45,040 Speaker 1: that question boiled down to another more difficult question. What 76 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:47,640 Speaker 1: kind of man do I want to be? Hold on, 77 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:54,000 Speaker 1: Hold on, stop, stop, Smedley. This is all well and good, dude, 78 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: but you spent the entirety of your career as a 79 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:01,440 Speaker 1: died in the wool imperialist. You held the Haitian Assembly 80 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:06,000 Speaker 1: at gunpoint and forced their citizens into slavery. You enforced 81 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:09,280 Speaker 1: apartheid in Animal for Pete's sake. You know that is 82 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:12,160 Speaker 1: absolutely true, jack hole, And that's not the half of it. 83 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:14,760 Speaker 1: I did the same shit in Mexico, ad Nicaragua and 84 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:17,720 Speaker 1: the Dominican Republic. The people who suffered most were the 85 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:20,680 Speaker 1: common folks. I knew this decades, decades before I hung 86 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:24,160 Speaker 1: up my spurs. I kept going along with it all anyway. 87 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:27,080 Speaker 1: I don't dispute that any of it. I don't dispute 88 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:29,560 Speaker 1: that if there is a Hell, I'm probably headed there 89 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:32,280 Speaker 1: for an eternity of chicken tinga tacos or whatever the 90 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:35,120 Speaker 1: Dinner in a Box is trying to sell. I'm just 91 00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:38,400 Speaker 1: trying to tell you there's more to me. You're focusing 92 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:43,560 Speaker 1: on the wrong thing. Okay, explain, please, Okay. So I 93 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: understand your fixation on Haiti, sure on the things I 94 00:05:46,480 --> 00:05:48,600 Speaker 1: did while wearing the uniform, and what all of that 95 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: might reveal about me. What I'm asking you to consider 96 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 1: is my second act in life, the perspective I earn 97 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:57,680 Speaker 1: I want you to talk about the man I became. 98 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:00,240 Speaker 1: You want to know the full picture of me and 99 00:06:00,280 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: all my mysterious forgotten glory. We gotta get a little deeper. Kids, 100 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:09,360 Speaker 1: join me in the tub. Well Scooch over Smedles. Let's 101 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:13,760 Speaker 1: start the episode from my heart, Originals and School of Humans. 102 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:17,320 Speaker 1: This is let's start a coup. I'm Ben Bolden and 103 00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:20,840 Speaker 1: I'm Alex French to bring you this story. We've done 104 00:06:20,840 --> 00:06:24,840 Speaker 1: all the research, read the books, interviewed historians, but still 105 00:06:25,280 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 1: there are some big gaps in the historical record and 106 00:06:28,160 --> 00:06:31,440 Speaker 1: we'll never know exactly what happened. So in those gaps, 107 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:36,440 Speaker 1: we've had some fun. This is episode four. All Smedley 108 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:46,360 Speaker 1: is considered. Let's think back to episode two and what 109 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:50,160 Speaker 1: we learned about our dear Major General Smedley Butler. He 110 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:54,720 Speaker 1: was in Haiti dissolving an independent country's national assembly at gunpoint. 111 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:59,040 Speaker 1: He forced the country to adopt a new constitution, enslaved 112 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:02,920 Speaker 1: thousands of Haitian peasants, sent them to this again. What 113 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:07,280 Speaker 1: did we just discuss? Yeah, focusing on what you're about 114 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:10,760 Speaker 1: to do, not what you did. But what you did 115 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: isn't something we're just gonna forget. I get it. I 116 00:07:14,680 --> 00:07:17,960 Speaker 1: did bad things. But fast forward a little bit. The 117 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:22,760 Speaker 1: Great War. Okay, fine, we're talking long before the Great 118 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:25,680 Speaker 1: Depression and all this coup business. When Smedley was a 119 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: younger man. The war to end all wars, I call 120 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:35,760 Speaker 1: it the show World War One. Remember. After three years 121 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:39,840 Speaker 1: of brutal fighting in Europe, the US finally officially entered 122 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:43,800 Speaker 1: the free in nineteen seventeen when Uncle Sam declared war 123 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:46,760 Speaker 1: on Germany and what the Kaiser called no one fact 124 00:07:46,840 --> 00:07:51,160 Speaker 1: checked me here, a real dick move. Around five million 125 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:55,680 Speaker 1: American civilians were gold to military service, but Smedley never 126 00:07:55,760 --> 00:07:58,480 Speaker 1: made it back to the trenches. He arrived just a 127 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: few months before the war ended and ranked campont Tennyson 128 00:08:01,640 --> 00:08:04,600 Speaker 1: in France, where his staff nurse meant through constant outbreaks 129 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:08,960 Speaker 1: of the flu and spinal meningitis. He managed sixteen kitchens, 130 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 1: each capable of feeding five thousand men at a time. 131 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:16,160 Speaker 1: He secured, by any means necessary, that supplies his guys needed. 132 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 1: And to be clear, this was one of those by 133 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 1: any means situations. Scores of men missing limbs, badly burned 134 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: and blinded from chemical weapons, suffering the invisible wounds of 135 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:31,120 Speaker 1: psychological trauma, with all the rain and the muck and 136 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 1: the deaths surrounding American forces. This is the place where 137 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:38,120 Speaker 1: Butler secured, at least in part, the reputation for caring 138 00:08:38,160 --> 00:08:41,480 Speaker 1: deeply about the rank and file. Gather round, troops. I 139 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:44,440 Speaker 1: know you're hurting, but I've got something you're gonna love. 140 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:49,560 Speaker 1: A bootleg copy of some French poetry. And from the 141 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:54,600 Speaker 1: looks of it, it is trey Franz Saiyah. I thought 142 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:58,720 Speaker 1: you'd like that. He identified his service in the Great 143 00:08:58,760 --> 00:09:02,240 Speaker 1: Wars one of the most trying periods of his life, 144 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:05,640 Speaker 1: and the years after the war ended were difficult ones 145 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 1: for the country were fatigued by the war. They were 146 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:11,840 Speaker 1: beaten down by the nineteen eighteen flu pandemic. The United 147 00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:15,720 Speaker 1: States was a deeply fractured, horrifically violent place. There were 148 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:20,680 Speaker 1: race riots, white mobs even attacked black veterans returning from Europe. Yeah. 149 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:26,480 Speaker 1: In the nineteen twenty presidential election, American voters overwhelmingly rejected 150 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:32,280 Speaker 1: Woodrow Wilson's internationalist approach in favor of an America First 151 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:36,880 Speaker 1: isolationism pitched to them by Warren Harding and his running 152 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:40,240 Speaker 1: mate Calvin Coolidge. To be clear, America First was one 153 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:46,240 Speaker 1: of their campaign slogans, does that sound familiar? America? Pandemic fatigue, 154 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:51,680 Speaker 1: the rise of nativism and white supremacy, totally unprecedented. There's 155 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 1: never ever been a period in American history like the 156 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:57,800 Speaker 1: nineteen twenties, and never will be ever again. I guarantee it. 157 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 1: You should be grateful and neither of you will ever 158 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:06,360 Speaker 1: have to live through anything like it. M I'm not 159 00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:10,560 Speaker 1: even going there. Yeah, it's better that you don't anyway. 160 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:15,320 Speaker 1: Harding's isolationist approach to foreign policy meant that Smedley, after 161 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:20,320 Speaker 1: twenty plus years of invading foreign lands, suddenly found himself 162 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:23,320 Speaker 1: on the bench. At the same time, the city of 163 00:10:23,320 --> 00:10:26,760 Speaker 1: Philadelphia was in a state of total lawlessness, overrun by 164 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: organized crime, illegal liquor, and banitry. So Smedley was brought 165 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:33,880 Speaker 1: in at the new Director of Public Safety. You put 166 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:36,600 Speaker 1: down that Chase steak, you can hurt somebody with that thing. 167 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:42,000 Speaker 1: Smedley brought the same counterinsurgency philosophy to Philly that he 168 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:46,280 Speaker 1: deployed in places like Haiti. Prohibition had gone largely ignored 169 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:50,480 Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, so Smedley's drive to clean up the streets 170 00:10:50,920 --> 00:10:55,880 Speaker 1: started with saloons. His cops raided and shuddered eighty percent 171 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:59,720 Speaker 1: of the city's booze joints in just forty eight hours. 172 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 1: I'm the biggest success in Philadelphia since let's see, Rocky 173 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:08,360 Speaker 1: doesn't come out till seventy six, Since Benjamin Franklin. Yeah, 174 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: let's go with him. The success was deceptive, though, because 175 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:16,160 Speaker 1: the places Butler shutdown reopened twenty four hours later, or 176 00:11:16,200 --> 00:11:19,560 Speaker 1: they just disappeared further underground. My plan to transform the 177 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:23,080 Speaker 1: city was brilliant. I wanted to set up armed guard 178 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:26,320 Speaker 1: stations at points of entrance into the city. Nothing says 179 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:31,400 Speaker 1: welcome to brotherly loves Bill like you know that. I 180 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: designed new uniforms from my officers, and mine had a cape. 181 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:41,000 Speaker 1: You guys picture it, scarlet lining so cool? But cool 182 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:46,400 Speaker 1: or not? Smedley's impact on crime in Philadelphia was overall 183 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:50,600 Speaker 1: pretty marginal. Yeah. I blame it on the political machine 184 00:11:50,640 --> 00:11:54,880 Speaker 1: that runs the city, specifically the shady congressman named Boss Vair. 185 00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: And let me tell you that guy makes everyone a Vair, 186 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:02,240 Speaker 1: that he's the boss if you understand word play, which 187 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:05,320 Speaker 1: I doubt. And the click that the politicians were most 188 00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:09,600 Speaker 1: intent on protecting was the city. He's nauseating elite. Oh 189 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:13,760 Speaker 1: those were hurry Jays Philadelphia in the mid nineteen twenties. 190 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:16,760 Speaker 1: We all used to hang around in hotel lobbies competing 191 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:20,240 Speaker 1: for who did the best of Lionel Barrymore impression. Oh 192 00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:24,320 Speaker 1: your multa crook la doesn't sound like Lionel Barrymore at all. Well, 193 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,360 Speaker 1: I guess we know why I didn't twin. Then Oh hey, Alex, 194 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:31,320 Speaker 1: look it's Lucious and Beauregard, our favorite plutocrats from earlier. 195 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:34,360 Speaker 1: We were having such a nice time until Smedley showed 196 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:37,120 Speaker 1: up to take all of our booz boos. Once he 197 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:40,320 Speaker 1: got against the rich, we're fun, we got cocaine, we 198 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:43,840 Speaker 1: do the Charleston. Eventually Smedley rated posh who tells like 199 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:46,680 Speaker 1: the Ritz, just doing his job, but he pissed off 200 00:12:46,680 --> 00:12:49,160 Speaker 1: the wrong people, which is to say, some of the 201 00:12:49,160 --> 00:12:53,440 Speaker 1: city's wealthiest boozehounds. He was let go. Well he deserved it. 202 00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:57,960 Speaker 1: Fun police and like you know, actual police. I'll never 203 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:00,680 Speaker 1: forget the raid on the Ritz. I was halfway through 204 00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:06,520 Speaker 1: doing the Varsity drag with legs Diamond when the music stopped. Yes, devastating. 205 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:09,800 Speaker 1: Down on the heels, up on the tooth, You're under 206 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:14,080 Speaker 1: I rashed. That's how it goes, day Spedley, that was fun, man, 207 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:19,400 Speaker 1: Thank you disagree anyway, when they fired me, I went 208 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:22,280 Speaker 1: back to the Marine Corps. Soon they shipped me off 209 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:29,040 Speaker 1: to Shanghai. Chen Kai Sek's nationalist forces were purging communists 210 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,080 Speaker 1: or anybody who had even a hint of radical sympathy, 211 00:13:33,560 --> 00:13:35,840 Speaker 1: and he was doing it with a level of barbarity 212 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:39,200 Speaker 1: that was hard to fathom. I remember Chang Kai Shek 213 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:42,760 Speaker 1: put together a murder squad to purgeing neighborhood in Shanghai. 214 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:46,040 Speaker 1: Chang's forces did what they said they were gonna do. 215 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:50,760 Speaker 1: They killed and killed. They killed women with bobbed hair 216 00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:55,680 Speaker 1: and unbound feet because those were signs of radicalization. Hung 217 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:59,320 Speaker 1: them from the city gates as a warning. They murdered 218 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:04,240 Speaker 1: children too. I just let it happen. Spent that day 219 00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:07,840 Speaker 1: inspecting new campsites from my guys, because well, what business 220 00:14:07,880 --> 00:14:10,600 Speaker 1: was it of ours? But it was a horrible thing 221 00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:14,280 Speaker 1: to witness. Was this some kind of turning point for you? 222 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:18,080 Speaker 1: Let's just say that for years I'd been having misgivings, 223 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,200 Speaker 1: doubts about what we were doing. Started around nineteen twelve 224 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 1: or so, and they hit me like the spicy bite 225 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:27,840 Speaker 1: of dinner in a box's chicken hall opinion. God damn it, 226 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:32,120 Speaker 1: don't hand me add copy while I'm pouring my heart out. Nah. Sorry, Yeah, 227 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:36,200 Speaker 1: I struggled mightily with our decision to stand aside in Shanghai. 228 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: Standing aside signaled that we approved of the killing. And 229 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:42,840 Speaker 1: when he was done in Shanghai, Chang took that brand 230 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,480 Speaker 1: of slaughter all over the country. The truly fucked up 231 00:14:46,520 --> 00:14:49,160 Speaker 1: thing about the scenario. If you had any kind of 232 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:51,800 Speaker 1: sense about you, you knew that the Western powers who 233 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 1: carved up China for profit, had everything to do with 234 00:14:54,680 --> 00:14:58,560 Speaker 1: what was happening and to make matters worse around that time. 235 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:04,600 Speaker 1: And then what was that I said around that time? 236 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:12,080 Speaker 1: I did? Did you say you're dead? Died? Oh h yeah, 237 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:15,480 Speaker 1: since you brought it up, Yes, Pops died while I 238 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:23,160 Speaker 1: was still in China. But it's fine. Is it really fine? 239 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:29,200 Speaker 1: Because you know you can talk about it. Well, yes, basically, 240 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:32,080 Speaker 1: Pops was chairman of the House Naval Offish Committee, so 241 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:34,240 Speaker 1: you know she only made me the man. I became 242 00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:38,440 Speaker 1: no big deal. Every time I came home from a deployment, 243 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:40,800 Speaker 1: there was always a huge parade with a marine Corps 244 00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:43,680 Speaker 1: band and a big old speech from the Secretary of 245 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:48,520 Speaker 1: the Navy. He made that happen. Ah, he was so proud. 246 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:56,680 Speaker 1: But it's fine. What's next, Smedley? Man, I'm sorry? Is 247 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: it time for another ad any mattresses we got to promote? 248 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,640 Speaker 1: Or still with the food? It sounds like you want 249 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:04,880 Speaker 1: to move on? Smedley, Well, what was your first clue? Genius? 250 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:08,920 Speaker 1: My obvious discomfort? God damn, these labs always with the feelings. 251 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: The episode's already running over. Let's move it along. Smedley's 252 00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:16,680 Speaker 1: return to the State's roughly coincided with his promotion to 253 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:20,280 Speaker 1: major general, making him one of the highest ranking officers 254 00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:23,160 Speaker 1: in the Corps and, at the tender age of forty eight, 255 00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:27,000 Speaker 1: the youngest major general in the entire US military. The 256 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:30,000 Speaker 1: promotion also should have put him next in line to 257 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:34,880 Speaker 1: be commandant of the Marine Corps, but the Butlers were broke, 258 00:16:35,400 --> 00:16:39,560 Speaker 1: so to supplement the family income, Smedley decided to try 259 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:43,840 Speaker 1: his hand at punditry. He wrote magazine and newspaper stories 260 00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:48,400 Speaker 1: about his adventures overseas, and he hit the Speaker's circuit 261 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:53,200 Speaker 1: during his weekend leaves. Is this on? Whoa guess? So 262 00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:57,160 Speaker 1: he gave talks all over about his exploits, making the 263 00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:59,960 Speaker 1: world safe for American business, what he saw in Haiti 264 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:04,480 Speaker 1: in the Philippines. Here's our pal, Smedley Butler biographer Jonathan Katz. 265 00:17:05,120 --> 00:17:09,760 Speaker 1: He doesn't realize the disc connect between what he's been doing, 266 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,960 Speaker 1: what he's actually been doing, and what Americans know about 267 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:16,080 Speaker 1: what he's been doing. They know this sort of media package. First, 268 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:19,760 Speaker 1: the terrorists, you know, the Boxer bandits and the Nicaraguan 269 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:23,640 Speaker 1: bandits and the Haitian bandits, the dastardly cocos of Haiti 270 00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:27,480 Speaker 1: are you know, threatening American lives, threatening American women. You know, 271 00:17:27,480 --> 00:17:29,680 Speaker 1: they're doing all these horrible things, and the Marines are 272 00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:32,760 Speaker 1: going to save us. And Butler knows that that's not 273 00:17:32,800 --> 00:17:36,040 Speaker 1: really what's going on. In December of nineteen twenty nine, 274 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:38,240 Speaker 1: he got up before a crowd of seven hundred in 275 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:41,720 Speaker 1: the ballroom of the William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 276 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,680 Speaker 1: The story they heard that night was, let's just say, 277 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:48,840 Speaker 1: not what they expected. Hi, folks, thanks for having me. 278 00:17:49,520 --> 00:18:00,440 Speaker 1: You know, parking around here is really crazy. How about 279 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:04,360 Speaker 1: those bridges, because Pittsburgh's got a whole lot of bridgish 280 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:12,800 Speaker 1: going on. Yeah, this guy knows what I'm talking about. Okay, 281 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:16,320 Speaker 1: So yeah, how's this? I'll tell you about Nicaragua. My 282 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:19,800 Speaker 1: Marines and I supervised a mighty fine election back there 283 00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:23,240 Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve. The fellow we had in power there 284 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:26,400 Speaker 1: nobody liked, but he was useful, so Uncle Sam wanted 285 00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:28,920 Speaker 1: to keep him. We just didn't know how to keep him. 286 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:31,600 Speaker 1: So here's what we did. All of the other candidates 287 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:34,200 Speaker 1: were fellows we didn't like so much, so we labeled 288 00:18:34,200 --> 00:18:37,440 Speaker 1: them as banditos. And then we kept the polls open 289 00:18:37,720 --> 00:18:40,800 Speaker 1: us long enough for a few hundred voters handpicked by us, 290 00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:43,560 Speaker 1: of course, to make sure that the election came up 291 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:49,400 Speaker 1: the way we wanted it to. Mission accomplished. Baby, Oh 292 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:51,440 Speaker 1: you like that one. Let me tell you about this 293 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:54,560 Speaker 1: one time in Haiti. Okay, they say, what happens at 294 00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:57,560 Speaker 1: the National Assembly ought to stay at the National Assembly. 295 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:02,200 Speaker 1: But since it's trust us and his audiences are just 296 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:06,800 Speaker 1: like floored, they're like, what, like, what what are you 297 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:10,480 Speaker 1: talking about? We did what? Wait, you all didn't know 298 00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:14,360 Speaker 1: America was doing this, but you do know it's a 299 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:17,600 Speaker 1: two drink minimum, right, So like, the more incredulous the 300 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:21,000 Speaker 1: audiences are, the more outspoken, he gets and he kind 301 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:23,520 Speaker 1: of like he really sort of becomes like an early 302 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:26,400 Speaker 1: thirties version of honestly, like I would just describe him 303 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:31,080 Speaker 1: as a troll. To be clear, Smedley didn't do stand 304 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:34,400 Speaker 1: up that you know of, but his comments that night 305 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,280 Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh got him in some serious hot water. Soon after, 306 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:42,280 Speaker 1: a newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania quoted him calling American involvement 307 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:47,240 Speaker 1: in the Caribbean hypocritical and oppressive, a policy imposed by 308 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:52,520 Speaker 1: force and fraud. The Hoover administration is pissed. What the 309 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:56,680 Speaker 1: actual Smedley? Yeah, this isn't the sort of information they 310 00:19:56,760 --> 00:19:59,680 Speaker 1: want out in the world. So the Secretary of the 311 00:19:59,800 --> 00:20:03,120 Speaker 1: Navy choose Butler route, and for the next few months, 312 00:20:03,160 --> 00:20:06,880 Speaker 1: during his speaking engagements, Smedley does his best to play nice, 313 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:12,840 Speaker 1: Hi folks, Fine, whatever, America's flawless. We're not doing anything wrong, 314 00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 1: no charife. Oh, I need a bath. But then the 315 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:19,600 Speaker 1: sitting commandant of the Marine Corps died and it really 316 00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:21,720 Speaker 1: seemed like it should have been Smedley's turn to be 317 00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:23,880 Speaker 1: the boss. He had the support of a bunch of 318 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,240 Speaker 1: DC heavyweights, but for some reason, they picked this Naval 319 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:30,440 Speaker 1: Academy guy who never had dirt under his fingernails, much 320 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:34,400 Speaker 1: less blood on his uniform. Train you imagine a uniform 321 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:39,480 Speaker 1: with no blood like what? Getting passed over for the 322 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:42,800 Speaker 1: role of commandant only served to become angry and bitter 323 00:20:43,360 --> 00:20:47,080 Speaker 1: and more willing to say whatever he wanted. Oh my god, 324 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:49,400 Speaker 1: did you see what Clara Bow wore to the Fourth 325 00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:53,720 Speaker 1: Academy Awards. Clara, you may be the itch girl, but girl, 326 00:20:54,240 --> 00:21:00,200 Speaker 1: that ain't it? Anyway? Back to America's fucked up tactics? Yeah, 327 00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:04,040 Speaker 1: how's that for a transition. Smedley bided his time as 328 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:07,960 Speaker 1: commander at Quantico, the largest Marine Corps base of the day. 329 00:21:08,400 --> 00:21:12,000 Speaker 1: Remember he was still a young man, not even fifty. 330 00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:16,960 Speaker 1: Yet he plotted his retirement, planned his future. How many 331 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:21,000 Speaker 1: more years till they built Disneyland? Twenty five? Oh, I 332 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:23,440 Speaker 1: guess I'll have to write a book or something. And 333 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:26,920 Speaker 1: he did a memoir called Old Gimlet Eye. Then he 334 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:29,560 Speaker 1: hit the road and made more speeches too. Yet he 335 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:33,960 Speaker 1: did well financially too. But it must have stung. I mean, 336 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:36,440 Speaker 1: if you'd have told him just a few years earlier 337 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:39,960 Speaker 1: that he'd never be Marine Corps commandant, history may well 338 00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:44,480 Speaker 1: have spun in a different direction. After the break, Major 339 00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:48,320 Speaker 1: General Butler reaches a turning point, and this lauded hero 340 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:52,840 Speaker 1: of the system becomes an existential threat to the powers 341 00:21:52,920 --> 00:22:07,160 Speaker 1: that created him. In the beginning of nineteen thirty one, 342 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,080 Speaker 1: Mussolini is one of the most respected leaders in the world. 343 00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: A second renaissance seemed to be afoot in Italy. I'll 344 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:19,240 Speaker 1: duj gave fascism a good name. Both Presidents Hoover and 345 00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:24,520 Speaker 1: Roosevelt expressed their approval of Mussolini's regime, So did dozens 346 00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:29,200 Speaker 1: of American newspapers and magazines. They were basically saying, what 347 00:22:29,360 --> 00:22:32,760 Speaker 1: isn't there to love about Mussolini? The guy gets stuff done, 348 00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:36,560 Speaker 1: created a social safety net, called for a disarmament conference. 349 00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:39,920 Speaker 1: At that very moment, Smedley hits the stage at the 350 00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:44,320 Speaker 1: Philadelphia Contemporary Club and tells the story. Okay, who wants 351 00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:50,120 Speaker 1: to hear one about Mussolini? I know, right, okay, okay, okay. Sure, 352 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:51,960 Speaker 1: he's all the rage of these days, and it's like 353 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:56,800 Speaker 1: impossible to find any of his countrymen who disagree, except 354 00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:00,120 Speaker 1: for maybe, you know, the eight year old child he 355 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:07,600 Speaker 1: ran over. H that was a weird reaction. He's sure, 356 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:09,920 Speaker 1: you guys swear to dog. A friend told me about this, 357 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:11,880 Speaker 1: and you tell me if you're such a fan of 358 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:16,200 Speaker 1: Mussolinguini after you hear this. Okay, okay. So he was 359 00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:19,680 Speaker 1: driving through the Italian countryside and his fancy Fiat and 360 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 1: just plows over this child in the street, and then 361 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:25,720 Speaker 1: apparently all right afterward, turns to his buddy in the 362 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:29,040 Speaker 1: passenger seat and it's like, oh, hey, what's one life 363 00:23:29,120 --> 00:23:36,360 Speaker 1: compared to affairs of a state? I mean, yeah, so 364 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:39,360 Speaker 1: I knew who. That's my Mussolini story. Awkward ending note. 365 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:45,640 Speaker 1: I guess night, folks, what Smedley's describing actually happened. Mussolini's 366 00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:50,400 Speaker 1: actually accused of running over a child in the Italian countryside. 367 00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:53,960 Speaker 1: Smedley's source about the hit and run was Cornelius Vanderbilt Junior, 368 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:59,040 Speaker 1: as in the Vanderbilts. The Italian Foreign Office conceded that 369 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,320 Speaker 1: Vanderbilt and Mussolini spent time together in nineteen twenty six, 370 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,040 Speaker 1: but insisted that no such car ride ever took place, 371 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:10,920 Speaker 1: even though in two later books Vanderbilt confirmed the story. 372 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:14,840 Speaker 1: Smedley told that story to a crowd of the Philadelphia 373 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,840 Speaker 1: Contemporary Club in nineteen thirty one, and word got back 374 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:22,760 Speaker 1: to the big bosses, the Secretary of the Navy, the president. 375 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:27,880 Speaker 1: This went over like a lead balloon. Here's Jonathan Katz. 376 00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:30,760 Speaker 1: Butler's saying, like, you can't trust this guy. This is 377 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:33,880 Speaker 1: a guy who will run over a child and not care, Like, 378 00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:36,960 Speaker 1: do not trust him. Do not trust Hitler. Do not 379 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: trust these fascists. It doesn't matter what they say, doesn't 380 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:41,920 Speaker 1: matter what deals they make with you, which, by the way, 381 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,800 Speaker 1: was really good advice. So you know, he's like, you know, 382 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 1: he's speaking the truth, but he's doing it out of turn. 383 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:53,000 Speaker 1: The Italian government protested, calling the anecdote insolent, ridiculous. Il 384 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:57,880 Speaker 1: Duce issued a denial. Herbert Hoover's Secretary of State, Henry Stimpson, 385 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: issued a formal apology to Mussolini. Anytime you're in any 386 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,480 Speaker 1: kind of bureaucracy, the worst thing that you can do, 387 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:07,200 Speaker 1: in terms of maintaining your place in the bureaucracy is 388 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,240 Speaker 1: to make your boss's job like ten percent harder. Right. 389 00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:12,640 Speaker 1: That was what he was doing. He was making their 390 00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:14,480 Speaker 1: jobs just like a little bit harder. And they didn't 391 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:15,800 Speaker 1: like that, and so they don't like, get the hell 392 00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:19,680 Speaker 1: out of here. You're done, those motherfuckers. Hoover and Stimpson 393 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:21,800 Speaker 1: ordered up a court martial and put me under a 394 00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:24,400 Speaker 1: house arrest. I was running the joint and then all 395 00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:27,200 Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm in the joint, alert the papers 396 00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:30,280 Speaker 1: to this injustice, and while you're at it, mailed me 397 00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:35,520 Speaker 1: some cross words. A huge public breuhaha ensued. It was 398 00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:38,200 Speaker 1: all over the papers, and it seemed like most of 399 00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:43,400 Speaker 1: America took Smedley side. One paper called him a quote blunt, 400 00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:47,960 Speaker 1: outspoken devil dog, the ace of our marines, but the 401 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:53,120 Speaker 1: Hoover administration wanted Smedley punished severely. Hoover and I had 402 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:56,320 Speaker 1: a history. He was in China during the Boxer Rebellion 403 00:25:56,360 --> 00:26:00,520 Speaker 1: and immediately proved himself to be a chicken shit coward. 404 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:04,880 Speaker 1: You say coward, I say, yeah, I guess cowards the 405 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:10,480 Speaker 1: right word, but I'm still alive, thought. Smedley never faced 406 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:13,640 Speaker 1: his court martial, and he also never apologized to Mussolini, 407 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,720 Speaker 1: but the incident did result in Smedley retiring from the 408 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:19,920 Speaker 1: Marine Corps at the age of fifty. Try to imagine 409 00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:22,080 Speaker 1: Alex how he must have felt on the day of 410 00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:26,520 Speaker 1: his retirement. For Smedley, being a marine wasn't just a job, 411 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,680 Speaker 1: It was his identity. He'd been at it since he 412 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:33,120 Speaker 1: was a kid. Imagine the sting of knowing that's all 413 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:37,440 Speaker 1: over with. Imagine the bitterness you'd feel towards the people 414 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:42,120 Speaker 1: who took it all away from you, the uncertainty and purposelessness. 415 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:45,760 Speaker 1: You know, I'm still here, right And it brought back 416 00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:49,440 Speaker 1: some old questions about what he'd done abroad, what it 417 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,800 Speaker 1: all meant, and what he was really doing for decades 418 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,480 Speaker 1: that no at all historian cats can tell you about this, 419 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:01,200 Speaker 1: since apparently he went through my mail. Take it away, 420 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:05,080 Speaker 1: your vulture. I think that I've read at least as 421 00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:09,920 Speaker 1: many of Butler's letters anyone has ever read, and you know, 422 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,800 Speaker 1: I never found one letter where he was like, this 423 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,800 Speaker 1: is it today? I change everything. I'm no longer. I'm 424 00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:18,880 Speaker 1: no longer Smedley Butler the Marie and I'm now Smedley 425 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:22,720 Speaker 1: Butler the anti war critic. But you see pieces of this, 426 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:26,840 Speaker 1: you know, come into place over the course of his life, 427 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:31,800 Speaker 1: Even as far back as his time in Nicaragua. Smedley 428 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:34,600 Speaker 1: wrote a letter to his parents in which he grappled 429 00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,440 Speaker 1: with what he was being asked to do. He wrote, 430 00:27:38,120 --> 00:27:41,200 Speaker 1: the blood will be on our hands. The people who 431 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:43,480 Speaker 1: are going to suffer from what we're doing here are 432 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:46,440 Speaker 1: going to be the poor of Nicaragua, and we're going 433 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:50,240 Speaker 1: to ultimately bear the responsibility for it. He's having doubts. 434 00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:52,960 Speaker 1: They're not doubts strong enough to keep him from doing 435 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,320 Speaker 1: the things that he's doing, but he's having doubts about it. 436 00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,600 Speaker 1: And of course retirement gave Smedley all kinds of time 437 00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,280 Speaker 1: to really examine his life's work. One of the things 438 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:06,480 Speaker 1: that I think really influences him is he goes through 439 00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:09,680 Speaker 1: some strong goals in his time. He has what I 440 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:14,360 Speaker 1: would definitely describe as PTSD, and he's also experiencing what 441 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:18,120 Speaker 1: is now known as moral injury, essentially the condition of 442 00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,480 Speaker 1: having done something or witnessed something, or feeling like you 443 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,600 Speaker 1: were in a position to have influenced something that violates 444 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:29,800 Speaker 1: your moral code, your core being. CATS in some very 445 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:35,760 Speaker 1: important ways identifies with Smedley and with this concept of 446 00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:39,480 Speaker 1: the moral injury. The reason why I sort of into 447 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:41,920 Speaker 1: it at a certain level. The way that these things 448 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,800 Speaker 1: are connected is because I've experienced it to a certain 449 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,560 Speaker 1: extent in my own life. I was a foreign correspondent. 450 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,080 Speaker 1: I covered the second into Fata, I covered a lot 451 00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:53,560 Speaker 1: of civil unrest, I survived a lot of natural disasters, 452 00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:56,800 Speaker 1: especially at the earthquake in Haiti in twenty ten. You know, 453 00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:00,640 Speaker 1: I have PTSD. I can understand that there are sort 454 00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:09,000 Speaker 1: of subtle ways in which going through something traumatic, going 455 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:14,200 Speaker 1: through something that's really really real, just you know, it 456 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:17,720 Speaker 1: kind of heightens your bullshit detector and it lowers your 457 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:21,800 Speaker 1: your tolerance for bullshit. I see that in Butler. He's 458 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:24,960 Speaker 1: he's struggling with this. He's he's going and he's killing people, 459 00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:27,640 Speaker 1: and he's and his friends are dying, and his friends 460 00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:31,520 Speaker 1: are you know, turning to alcoholism and you know, dying 461 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:35,280 Speaker 1: young and dying on the battlefield. He's getting shot and 462 00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,800 Speaker 1: he's and he's just asking himself, what is this for? 463 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:39,840 Speaker 1: Why am I doing this to these other people? Why 464 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,520 Speaker 1: am I doing this to myself? And he starts asking 465 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:45,880 Speaker 1: himself like really, you know, I think hard questions about it. 466 00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:49,400 Speaker 1: And Butler works through these difficult questions on a nightly 467 00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:52,960 Speaker 1: basis on stage as he's talking to pack to VFW halls, 468 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:56,920 Speaker 1: he works with them, writing his magazine and newspaper articles. 469 00:29:56,920 --> 00:29:59,800 Speaker 1: He's transformed from being a man who went dutifully along 470 00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:03,840 Speaker 1: to a voice of opposition who starts asking hard questions 471 00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:10,320 Speaker 1: about imperialism, war in gangster as the early nineteen thirties 472 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:13,800 Speaker 1: turned into the mid nineteen thirties. Smedley takes a long, 473 00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:18,040 Speaker 1: hard look back on his career. During his time in Philadelphia, 474 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:21,200 Speaker 1: he went head to head with bootleggers and loan sharks, 475 00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:25,520 Speaker 1: actual associates of al Capone, and Smedley began to see 476 00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:30,840 Speaker 1: troubling similarities between his assignments abroad and the way criminals 477 00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:35,160 Speaker 1: like Capone conducted their businesses at home, and in nineteen 478 00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:37,640 Speaker 1: thirty five we got to hear it all in his 479 00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,240 Speaker 1: own words, the zappoly named pamphlet wore as a racket. 480 00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:44,200 Speaker 1: This is what he wrote, with only some small trims 481 00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:48,400 Speaker 1: for clarity. I spent thirty three years and four months 482 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,480 Speaker 1: as a member of the Marine Corps, and during that 483 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:54,040 Speaker 1: period I spent most of my time being a high 484 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:57,760 Speaker 1: class muscleman for big business, for Wall Street and for 485 00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:03,640 Speaker 1: the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism. 486 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:05,920 Speaker 1: I suspected I was just part of a racket at 487 00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:09,400 Speaker 1: the time, how I am sure of it. Like all 488 00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:12,280 Speaker 1: members of the profession, I never had an original thought 489 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,920 Speaker 1: until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in 490 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:19,880 Speaker 1: suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher ups. 491 00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: Thus I helped make Mexico safe for American oil interests. 492 00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:26,800 Speaker 1: I helped make Haitian Cuba a decent place for the 493 00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:29,720 Speaker 1: National City Bank boys to collect revenues. I helped in 494 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:32,440 Speaker 1: the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for 495 00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:35,880 Speaker 1: the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for 496 00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:39,280 Speaker 1: the international banking house of Brown Brothers. I brought light 497 00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:42,760 Speaker 1: to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests. I helped 498 00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:46,520 Speaker 1: make Honduras right for American fruit companies in China. I 499 00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:50,520 Speaker 1: helped see to it that standard oil went its way unmolested. 500 00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:53,640 Speaker 1: Looking back on it, I feel I might have given 501 00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:56,560 Speaker 1: al Capone a few hints. The best he could do 502 00:31:56,760 --> 00:32:00,040 Speaker 1: was to operate his racquet in three city districts. We 503 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:06,800 Speaker 1: marines operated on three continents. So, Smedley, what you're seeing 504 00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:10,280 Speaker 1: is you're not going along with this coup. Did you 505 00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:12,880 Speaker 1: listen to a word I just said? I mean, granted, 506 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,160 Speaker 1: I didn't publish those words until after the whole coup 507 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,160 Speaker 1: thing was over with, but that's how I was feeling 508 00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:20,640 Speaker 1: at the time. And you want to know why I 509 00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:24,880 Speaker 1: don't want to read a stupid ads Ben Alex, because 510 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,640 Speaker 1: I never ever want to be a sellout a shill 511 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:31,760 Speaker 1: ever again. So, why would those bankers think that Smedley 512 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,880 Speaker 1: was the guy to lead their coup? Here's Jonathan Katz again. 513 00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:37,920 Speaker 1: I can't put myself in the mind of Gerald maguire 514 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:40,960 Speaker 1: hello or the plotters, but I think that it was 515 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:45,440 Speaker 1: because he had this really ideal for them, or at 516 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:48,720 Speaker 1: least what they thought was an ideal recipe of a 517 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:54,080 Speaker 1: history of you know, using anti parliamentary, anti democratic violence, 518 00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:56,560 Speaker 1: and so I think they thought, like, this guy's the 519 00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:59,600 Speaker 1: perfect guy, Like he's a celebrity. People love him. You know, 520 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:01,640 Speaker 1: he doesn't give a fuck, like he doesn't care. He 521 00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:04,360 Speaker 1: would just go out there and do whatever, and so 522 00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,760 Speaker 1: you know he'll be perfect. He'll be perfect to use 523 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:11,480 Speaker 1: that military expertise and that sort of just rampant independence 524 00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:14,480 Speaker 1: streak to do what we want him to do. Huh. 525 00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:17,880 Speaker 1: Sounds like those coup plotting fat catch don't know me 526 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:24,400 Speaker 1: too well after all, do they? Now? Next time, Smedley 527 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:26,840 Speaker 1: Butler has the goods on the story of a century 528 00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:29,640 Speaker 1: A cabal of the country's richest men want to take 529 00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:32,080 Speaker 1: over the White House, but does he have the courage 530 00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:36,000 Speaker 1: to take them down. Old Gimlet Eye has one last 531 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:40,840 Speaker 1: surprise left for the Powers that beat. Hello, There's just 532 00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:45,040 Speaker 1: the Philadelphia record. Tune in again next time for Let's 533 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:49,360 Speaker 1: Start a Coup. Let's Start a Coup is a production 534 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:52,760 Speaker 1: of School of Humans and I Heard Podcasts. Our hosts 535 00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,880 Speaker 1: are Alex French and Ben Bolan. This show was written 536 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:59,880 Speaker 1: by Alex Brench, with additional writing by Joeken Ocean. Original 537 00:33:59,960 --> 00:34:04,200 Speaker 1: music and scoring by Joeken Ocean. Character voices by Joeken Ocean, 538 00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:09,040 Speaker 1: Nah talk about a Stagehog. Anne Lisbetis is our producer. 539 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:13,720 Speaker 1: Emilia Brock is our senior producer. Sound design, additional scoring, 540 00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:18,680 Speaker 1: mixing and mastering by Alexander Overington. Our story editor is 541 00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:22,800 Speaker 1: Lacy Roberts. Fact checking by Austin Thompson. The head Fraser 542 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,120 Speaker 1: is our recording engineer. Recorded at the iHeart Studio in 543 00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:30,880 Speaker 1: New York. Executive producers or Jason English, Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, 544 00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:34,160 Speaker 1: and Elsie Crowley. If you're enjoying the show, help us 545 00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:35,920 Speaker 1: get the word out by leaving a rating in your 546 00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:39,640 Speaker 1: favorite podcast app. Give it five stars and then write 547 00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:43,560 Speaker 1: a comment below that something like, oh mgdd, those rich 548 00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,760 Speaker 1: jerk characters are so funny. Oh whatever, you know what 549 00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:50,240 Speaker 1: to do. You're good with technology. Tune in again next 550 00:34:50,240 --> 00:34:59,640 Speaker 1: time for Let's Start a Coup School of Humans.