MILITARISM
Major Gen. Smedley D. Butler, U.S.M.C. | 10.10.2001 13:50
from an article in Common Sense, November 1935
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to do so. I spent 33 years and 4 months in active military service as a member of our country's most agile military force - the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just a part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
Thus I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect the revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light in the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that the Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had as the boys in the backroom would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals and promotion. Locking back on it I feel that I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. I operated on three continents.
Major Gen. Smedley D. Butler, U.S.M.C.