Re: [A-List] US Imperialism: The Special Relationship

["Anyutka" <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

Thanks, Jim - very interesting.  Could I have a citation for this?  Esp. for
the connection of
the individuals you name - in particular Prescott Bush, GH Walker, and JP
Morgan, etc. -
to the America First movement, which is the antecedent to what is generally
known as
the "Old Right" who were anti-imperialist, non-interventionists smeared
routinely
as "isolationists".  The imperialists you name are anathema to the heirs of
the Old Right, the
paleocons - I would be interested in knowing of any documented link.  And so
would fellow
paleos!

Anne

----- Original Message -----
From: "Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2003 6:39 PM
Subject: RE: [A-List] US Imperialism: The Special Relationship


>
> On Oct. 27, 1941, FDR, locked in mortal combat with an America First
> Committee that was resisting his drive to war, played his trump. On Navy
> Day, at the Mayflower Hotel, FDR declared,
>
> Response Jim C: No this was not his trump cazrd. His real trump card FDR
> never played--and even worse.
>
> In July of 1934, out of a group called "The Committee for a Sound Dollar",
> another group was formed called "The American Liberty League" many of
whose
> members went on to become principals in the "America First"
> movement--including Prescott Bush, George Herbert Walker, JP Morgan, Al
> Smith, John Davis, Henry Luce, Skull and Bones members, Douglas MacArthur.
> et al. In 1934, they approached Maj General Smedley D. Butler, a real
> soldier's general, three times awarded the Medal of Honor (but only
allowed
> to hold two Medals of Honor as officers were not eligible until 1914) to
> form and lead an army of World War I bonus marchers and veterans to ack as
> shock troops to support a planned takeover of the White House, removal of
> FDR, removal of the vice-president and to install Genral Butler as a sort
of
> "Secretary of General Affairs." and to set up a full-blown (but American
in
> style) fascist dictatorship. Had General Butler nopt gone along with them
to
> find out who was behind the plot and had General Butler not convened a
> public press conference to expose the plot and conspirators, a fascist
coup
> might well have been successful.
>
> Congress convened an investigation under Congressmen Dickstein and
McCormack
> (later Speaker of the House) which was a whitewash job but which did
confirm
> Butler's allegations and those of a reporter named Paul French who had
been
> recruited by Butler to witness what he was being told by the conspirators.
>
> The major conspirators not only were not taken to trial, they went on to
> some of the most influencial positions in government (or remained in their
> influencial positions), MacArthur went on untouched and even promoted.
> FDR claimed that if we went after the conspirators it would cause such a
> crisis in government and potentially popular riots that the costs would
> outweigh any benefits; many of those conspirators went on to prominence in
> the America First movement and went on to trading with the enemy
thorughout
> World War II.
>
>
> Jim C
>