Smedley Butler

Smedley Darlington Butler was born on July 30, 1881, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three sons. His parents, Maud (née Darlington) and Thomas Butler, were descendants of local Quaker families. Both parents were of entirely English ancestry, and their families had been in North America since the 17th century. Smedley's father, Thomas, was a lawyer, a judge, and later served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 31 years, serving as chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee during the Harding and Coolidge administrations. Smedley's Marine Corps career successes occurred while his father held that politically influential Congressional seat, controlling the Marine Corps manpower and budget. His paternal grandfather was Samuel Butler, who served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and served as Pennsylvania State Treasurer from 1880 to 1882. Butler's childhood home is a registered landmark. Butler attended West Chester Friends Graded High School, followed by the Haverford School, a (then) Quaker-affiliated secondary school, popular with sons of upper-class Philadelphia families. He became captain of the school baseball team and quarterback of its football team. Against the wishes of his father, he left school 38 days before his seventeenth birthday to enlist in the Marine Corps during the Spanish–American War. Haverford awarded him his high school diploma, nevertheless, on June 6, 1898, before the end of his final year. His transcript stated that he completed the scientific course "with Credit". ==Military career==

Spanish–American War In the Spanish war fervor of 1898, Butler lied about his age to receive a direct commission as a Marine second lieutenant. He trained at Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C. In July 1898, he went to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, arriving shortly after its invasion and capture. His company soon returned to the U.S., and after a short break, he was assigned to the armored cruiser for four months. He came home to be mustered out of service in February 1899, but on April 8, 1899, he accepted a commission as a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Philippine–American War The Marine Corps sent him to Manila, Philippines. On garrison duty with little to do, Butler turned to alcohol to relieve the boredom. He once became drunk and was temporarily relieved of command after an unspecified incident in his room. In October 1899, he saw his first combat action when he led 300 Marines to take the town of Noveleta from Filipino troops of the new Philippine republic. In the initial moments of the assault, his first sergeant was wounded. Butler briefly panicked, but he quickly regained his composure and led his Marines in pursuit of the fleeing enemy. By noon, the Marines had dispersed the native defenders and taken the town. One Marine had been killed, 10 were wounded, and another 50 had been incapacitated by the humid tropical heat. After the excitement of this combat, garrison duty again became routine. He met Littleton Waller, a fellow Marine with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. When Waller received command of a company in Guam, he was allowed to select five officers to take with him. Butler was amongst his choices. Before they had departed, their orders were changed, and they were sent to China aboard the to help put down the Boxer Rebellion. Boxer Rebellion '' on July 22, 1900, depicting Butler being carried on the back of another Marine to safety across a river at the Battle of Tientsin. Once in China, Butler was initially deployed in Tianjin (then often romanized as Tientsin). He took part in the Battle of Tientsin on July 13, 1900, and in the subsequent Gaselee Expedition, during which he saw the mutilated remains of Japanese soldiers. When he saw another Marine officer fall wounded, he climbed out of a trench to rescue him. Butler was then shot in the thigh. Another Marine helped him get to safety, but he was also shot. Despite his leg wound, Butler assisted the wounded officer to the rear. Four enlisted men would receive the Medal of Honor in the battle. Butler's commanding officer, Major Waller, personally commended him and wrote that "for such reward as you may deem proper the following officers: Lieutenant Smedley D. Butler, for the admirable control of his men in all the fights of the week, for saving a wounded man at the risk of his own life, and under a very severe fire." Commissioned officers were not then eligible to receive the Medal of Honor, and Butler instead received a promotion to captain by brevet while he recovered in the hospital, two weeks before his 19th birthday. He was eligible for the Marine Corps Brevet Medal when it was created in 1921, and was one of only 20 Marines to receive it. His citation reads: Banana Wars Butler participated in a series of occupations, "police actions", and interventions by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean, later called the Banana Wars due to their goal of protecting American commercial interests in the region, particularly those of the United Fruit Company. This company had significant financial stakes in the production of bananas, tobacco, sugar cane, and other products throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and the northern portions of South America. The U.S. was also trying to advance its own political interests by maintaining its influence in the region and especially its control of the Panama Canal. These interventions started with the Spanish–American War in 1898 and ended with the withdrawal of troops from Haiti and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy in 1934. After his retirement, Butler became an outspoken critic of the United States' business interests in the Caribbean, criticizing the ways in which American businesses and Wall Street bankers imposed their agenda on U.S. foreign policy. Honduras In 1903, Butler was stationed in Puerto Rico on Culebra Island. Hearing rumors of a Honduran revolt, the United States government ordered his unit and a supporting naval detachment to sail to Honduras, to the west, to defend the U.S. Consulate there. Using a converted banana boat renamed the Panther, Butler and several hundred Marines landed at the port town of Puerto Cortés. In a letter home, he describes the action: they were "prepared to land and shoot everybody and everything that was breaking the peace", but instead found a quiet town. The Marines re-boarded the Panther and continued up the coastline, looking for rebels at several towns, but found none. When they arrived at Trujillo, however, they heard gunfire and came upon a battle in progress that had been ongoing for 55 hours between rebels called Bonillista and Honduran government soldiers at a local fort. At the sight of the Marines, the fighting ceased, and Butler led a detachment of Marines to the American consulate, where he found the consul, wrapped in an American flag, hiding among the floor beams. As soon as the Marines left the area with the shaken consul, the battle resumed, and the Bonillistas soon controlled the government. During this expedition, Butler earned the first of his nicknames: "Old Gimlet Eye". It was attributed to his feverish, bloodshot eyes (he was suffering from some unnamed tropical fever at the time) that enhanced his penetrating and bellicose stare. Marriage and business After the Honduran campaign, Butler returned to Philadelphia. He married Ethel Conway Peters of Philadelphia, a daughter of civil engineer and railroad executive Richard Peters, on June 30, 1905. His best man at the wedding was his former commanding officer in China, Lieutenant Colonel Littleton Waller. The couple eventually had three children, a daughter, Ethel Peters Butler, and two sons, Smedley Darlington Jr. and Thomas Richard. Butler was next assigned to garrison duty in the Philippines, where he once launched a resupply mission across the stormy waters of Subic Bay after his isolated outpost ran out of rations. In 1908, he was diagnosed as having a nervous breakdown and received nine months sick leave, which he spent at home. He successfully managed a coal mine in West Virginia, but returned to active duty in the Marine Corps at the first opportunity. Central America From 1909 to 1912, Butler served in Nicaragua, enforcing U.S. policy. With a 104-degree fever, he led his battalion to the relief of the rebel-besieged city of Granada. In December 1909, he commanded the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment on the Isthmus of Panama. On August 11, 1912, he was temporarily detached to command an expeditionary battalion he led in the Battle of Masaya on September 19, 1912, and the bombardment, assault, and capture of Coyotepe Hill, Nicaragua, in October 1912. He remained in Nicaragua until November 1912, when he rejoined the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines at Camp Elliott, Panama. Veracruz and first Medal of Honor , 1914. Front row, left to right: Wendell C. Neville; John A. Lejeune; Littleton W. T. Waller, Commanding; Smedley Butler.|alt=Eight people in military uniforms. They are wearing hats and are standing in formation. Butler and his family were living in Panama in January 1914, when he was ordered to report as the Marine officer of a battleship squadron massing off the coast of Mexico, near Veracruz, to monitor a revolutionary movement. He did not like leaving his family and the home they had established in Panama, so he intended to request orders home as soon as he determined he was not needed. On March 1, 1914, Butler and Navy Lieutenant Frank J. Fletcher (not to be confused with his uncle, Rear Admiral Frank F. Fletcher) "went ashore at Veracruz, where they met the American superintendent of the Inter-Oceanic Railway and surreptitiously rode in his private [railway] car up the line 75 miles to Jalapa and back". One reason for the trip was to allow Butler and Fletcher to discuss the details of a future expedition into Mexico. Fletcher's plan required Butler to make his way into the country and develop a more detailed invasion plan while inside its borders. It was a spy mission, and Butler was enthusiastic to get started. When Fletcher explained the plan to the commanders in Washington, DC, they agreed to it. Butler was given the go-ahead. A few days later, he set out by train on his spy mission to Mexico City, with a stopover at Puebla. He made his way to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico City, posing as a railroad official named "Mr. Johnson". • March 5. As I was reading last night, waiting for dinner to be served, a visitant, rather than a visitor, appeared in my drawing-room incognito – a simple "Mr. Johnson," eager, intrepid, dynamic, efficient, unshaven! * * * He and the chief railroad inspector scoured the city, saying that they were searching for a lost railroad employee; there was no lost employee, and in fact, the employee who they said was lost never existed. The ruse gave Butler access to various areas of the city. In the process of the so-called search, they located weapons in use by the Mexican army and determined the size of units and states of readiness. They updated maps and verified the railroad lines for use in an impending U.S. invasion. On March 7, 1914, he returned to Veracruz with the information he had gathered and presented it to his commanders. The invasion plan was eventually scrapped, when authorities loyal to Mexican General Victoriano Huerta detained a small American naval landing party (that had gone ashore to buy gasoline) in Tampico, Mexico, which led to what became known as the Tampico Affair. When President Woodrow Wilson discovered that an arms shipment was about to arrive in Mexico, he sent a contingent of Marines and sailors to Veracruz to intercept it on April 21, 1914. Over the next few days, street fighting and sniper fire posed a threat to Butler's force, but a door-to-door search rooted out most of the resistance. By April 26, the landing force of 5,800 Marines and sailors secured the city, which they held for the next six months. By the end of the conflict, the Americans reported 17 dead and 63 wounded; the Mexican forces had 126 dead and 195 wounded. After the actions at Veracruz, the U.S. decided to minimize the bloodshed and changed their plans from a full invasion of Mexico to simply maintaining the city of Veracruz. For his actions on April 22, Butler was awarded his first Medal of Honor. Haiti and second Medal of Honor In 1915, Haitian President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam was killed by a mob. In response, the United States ordered the to Haiti, with Major Butler and a group of Marines on board. On October 24, 1915, an estimated 400 Cacos (Haitian rebels) ambushed Butler's patrol of 44 mounted Marines when they approached Fort Dipitie. Surrounded by Cacos, the Marines maintained their perimeter throughout the night. The next morning, they charged the much-larger enemy force by breaking out in three directions. The startled Haitians fled. In early November, Butler and a force of 700 Marines and sailors returned to the mountains to clear the area. At their temporary headquarters base at Le Trou, they fought off an attack by about 100 Cacos. After the Americans took several other forts and ramparts during the following days, only Fort Rivière, an old, French-built stronghold atop , was left. For the operation, Butler was given three companies of Marines and some sailors from the USS Connecticut, about 100 men. They encircled the fort and gradually closed in on it. Butler reached the fort from the southern side with the 15th Company and found a small opening in the wall. The Marines entered through the opening and engaged the Cacos in hand-to-hand combat. Butler and the Marines took the rebel stronghold on November 17, 1915, an action for which he received his second Medal of Honor, as well as the Haitian Medal of Honor. The entire battle lasted less than 20 minutes. Reportedly, only one Marine was injured in the assault; he was struck by a rock and lost two teeth. About 50 Haitians in the fort were killed. Butler's exploits impressed Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, who recommended the award, based on Butler's performance during the engagement. Once the medal was approved and presented in 1917, Butler became one of only two Marines to receive the Medal of Honor twice for separate actions, a distinction shared with Dan Daly. Although he was effective in reducing crime and police corruption, he was a controversial leader. In one instance, he made a statement that he would promote the first officer to kill a bandit and stated, "I don't believe there is a single bandit notch on a policeman's guns in this city; go out and get some." Although many of the local citizens and police felt that the raids were just a show, they continued for several weeks. Baseball Team 1925. Among his many accomplishments as the director of public safety, he implemented programs to improve city safety and security, established policies and guidelines for the administration, and developed a Philadelphia police uniform that resembled that of the Marine Corps. Other changes included military-style checkpoints into the city and bandit-chasing squads, who were armed with sawed-off shotguns and armored police cars. The press began reporting on both the good and the bad aspects of Butler's personal war on crime. They praised the new uniforms, the new programs, and the reductions in crime, but they also reflected the public's negative opinion of their new public safety director. Many felt that he was being too aggressive in his tactics and resented the reductions in their civil rights, such as the stopping of citizens at the city checkpoints. Butler frequently swore in his radio addresses, causing many citizens to suggest that his behavior, and particularly his language, was inappropriate for someone of his rank and stature. Some even suggested that Butler was acting like a military dictator, even charging that he wrongfully used active-duty Marines in some of his raids. Maj. R.A. Haynes, the federal prohibition commissioner, visited the city in 1924, six months after Butler was appointed. He announced that "great progress" had been made in the city, and he attributed that success to Butler. Eventually, Butler's leadership style and the directness of actions undermined his support within the community, so his departure seemed imminent. Mayor Kendrick reported to the press, "I had the guts to bring General Butler to Philadelphia and I have the guts to fire him." Feeling that his duties in Philadelphia were coming to an end, Butler contacted Gen. Lejeune to prepare for his return to the Marine Corps. Not all of the citizens felt that Butler was doing a bad job, though, and when the news started to leak that he would be leaving, people began to gather at the Academy of Music. A group of 4,000 supporters assembled and negotiated a truce between him and the mayor to keep him in Philadelphia for a while longer, and the president authorized a one-year extension. Butler devoted much of his second year to executing arrest warrants, cracking down on crooked police, and enforcing prohibition. On January 1, 1926, his leave from the Marine Corps ended, and the president declined a request for a second extension. Butler received orders to report to San Diego and prepared his family and his belongings for the new assignment. In light of his pending departure, he began to defy the mayor and other key city officials. On the eve of his departure, he had an article printed in the paper that stated his intention to stay and "finish the job". The mayor was surprised and furious when he read the press release the next morning and demanded Butler's resignation. After almost two years in office, Butler resigned under pressure, stating later that "cleaning up Philadelphia was worse than any battle I was ever in." He oversaw base construction efforts and established it as the expeditionary force base for the Far East. In 1931, Butler violated diplomatic norms by publicly recounting gossip{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19310213&id=bTNXAAAAIBAJ&pg=2912,1977522|title=Vanderbilt Tells Mussolini Story: Hit-Run Incident Happened But Butler Garbled It, He Says|website=Lawrence Daily Journal-World|issue=38 ==Military retirement==

When Commandant of the Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Wendell C. Neville died July 8, 1930, Butler, at that time the senior major general in the Corps, was a candidate for the position. Although he had significant support from many inside and outside the Corps, including John Lejeune and Josephus Daniels, two other Marine Corps generals were seriously considered, Ben H. Fuller and John H. Russell Jr. Lejeune and others petitioned President Herbert Hoover, garnered support in the Senate and flooded Secretary of the Navy Charles Adams' desk with more than 2,500 letters of support. With the recent death of his influential father, however, Butler had lost much of his protection from his civilian superiors. The outspokenness that characterized his run-ins with the mayor of Philadelphia, the "unreliability" mentioned by his superiors when they were opposing Butler's World War I posting to the Western Front, and his comments about Benito Mussolini resurfaced. In the end, the position of commandant went to Fuller, who had more years of commissioned service than Butler and was considered less controversial. Butler requested retirement and left active duty on October 1, 1931. ==Later years==

Even before retiring from the Corps, Butler began developing his post-Corps career. In May 1931, he took part in a commission established by Oregon Governor Julius L. Meier, which laid the foundations for the Oregon State Police. He also began lecturing at events and conferences. After he retired from the Marines in 1931, he took to the lecture circuit full time, and donated much of his earnings from his lucrative lectures to Philadelphia unemployment relief. He toured the western United States, making 60 speeches before returning for his daughter's marriage to Marine aviator Lt. John Wehle. Her wedding was the only time he wore his dress blue uniform after he left the Marines. Senate campaign In March 1932, Butler announced his candidacy for the upcoming U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania. He ran in the Republican primary in Pennsylvania as a proponent of Prohibition. Butler allied with Pennsylvania governor Gifford Pinchot, but was defeated in the April 26, 1932, primary election with only 37.5% of the vote to incumbent Sen. James J. Davis's 60%. Butler voted for Norman Thomas of the Socialist Party for president in 1936. Bonus Army encampment in Washington, D.C. alongside Commander Walter W. Waters (left), July 1932. During his Senate campaign, Butler spoke out forcefully about the veterans' bonus. Veterans of World War I, many of whom had been out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression, sought immediate cash payment of Service Certificates granted to them eight years earlier via the World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924. Each Service Certificate, issued to a qualified veteran soldier, bore a face value equal to the soldier's promised payment, plus compound interest. The problem was that the certificates, like bonds, matured 20 years from the date of original issuance; thus, under extant law, the Service Certificates could not be redeemed until 1945. In June 1932, approximately 43,000 marchers, including 17,000 World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups, protested in Washington, D.C. The Bonus Expeditionary Force, also known as the "Bonus Army", marched on Washington to advocate the passage of the "soldier's bonus" for service during World War I. After Congress adjourned, bonus marchers remained in the city and became unruly. On July 28, 1932, two bonus marchers were shot by police, causing the entire mob to become hostile and riotous. The FBI, then known as the United States Bureau of Investigation, checked its fingerprint records to obtain the police records of individuals who had been arrested during the riots or who had participated in the bonus march. He believed the rival veterans' group the American Legion was controlled by banking interests. On December 8, 1933, he said: "I have never known one leader of the American Legion who had never sold them out—and I mean it." In addition to his speeches to pacifist groups, he served from 1935 to 1937 as a spokesman for the American League Against War and Fascism. In 1935, he wrote the exposé War Is a Racket, a trenchant condemnation of the profit motive behind warfare. His views on the subject are summarized in the following passage from the November 1935 issue of the socialist magazine Common Sense: Business Plot In November 1934, Butler claimed the existence of a political conspiracy by business leaders to overthrow President Roosevelt, a series of allegations that came to be known in the media as the Business Plot. A special committee of the House of Representatives headed by Representatives John W. McCormack of Massachusetts and Samuel Dickstein of New York, who was later alleged to have been a paid agent of the Soviet Union's NKVD, heard his testimony in secret. The McCormack–Dickstein committee was a precursor to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Butler told the committee that one Gerald P. MacGuire told him that a group of businessmen, supposedly backed by a private army of 500,000 ex-soldiers and others, intended to establish a fascist dictatorship. Butler had been asked to lead it, he said, by MacGuire, who was a bond salesman with Grayson M. P. Murphy & Co. The New York Times reported that Butler had told friends that General Hugh S. Johnson, former head of the National Recovery Administration, was to be installed as dictator, and that the J.P. Morgan banking firm was behind the plot. Butler told Congress that MacGuire had told him the attempted coup was backed by three million dollars, and that the 500,000 men were probably to be assembled in Washington, D.C. the following year. All the parties alleged to be involved publicly said there was no truth in the story, calling it a joke and a fantasy. When the committee's final report was released in 1935, however, the Times said the committee "purported to report that a two-month investigation had convinced it that General Butler's story of a Fascist march on Washington was alarmingly true" and "... also alleged that definite proof had been found that the much publicized Fascist march on Washington, which was to have been led by Major Gen. Smedley D. Butler, retired, according to testimony at a hearing, was actually contemplated". The individuals involved all denied the existence of a plot. Death After his retirement, Butler bought a home in Newtown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where he lived with his wife. In June 1940, he checked himself into the hospital after becoming sick a few weeks earlier. His doctor described his illness as an incurable condition of the upper gastro-intestinal tract, which was reported to be cancer. His family remained by his side, even bringing his new car so he could see it from the window. He never had a chance to drive it. On June 21, 1940, Smedley Butler died at Naval Hospital, Philadelphia. The funeral was held at his home, attended by friends and family as well as several politicians, members of the Philadelphia police force, and officers of the Marine Corps. He was buried at Oaklands Cemetery in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania. His modest gravestone is located in Section B-1 (see site map). After his death, until 2014, his family maintained his home as it was when he died, including a large quantity of memorabilia he collected throughout his storied career. ==Honors, awards, and promotions==

Military awards Butler's awards and decorations included the following: • Marine Corps Base Camp Smedley D. Butler in Okinawa, Japan, established in 1955, is named in his honor • The Boston, Massachusetts, chapter of Veterans for Peace is called the Smedley D. Butler Brigade in his honor. • Butler was featured in the 2003 Canadian documentary film The Corporation. • In his book My First Days in the White House, Senator Huey Long of Louisiana stated that, if elected to the presidency, he would name Butler as his Secretary of War. • His childhood home at West Chester, The Butler House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. • A fictionalized version of Butler is portrayed by Robert De Niro as a retired marine named Gilbert Dillenbeck in the 2022 film Amsterdam, the plot of which revolves around Dillenbeck foiling an attempted business plot by fascist conspirators. Promotions and retirement ==Published works==

Books • Walter Garvin in Mexico (1927, with Arthur J. Burks) • ''Paraguay: A Gallant Little Nation: The Story of Paraguay's War with Bolivia'' (1935, with Philip de Ronde) • War Is a Racket (1935) Articles • Smashing Crime and Vice (30-part syndicated newspaper series), Bell Syndicate, April–May 1926 [ghostwritten by Eli Zachary Dimitman] • "American Marines in China", The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July 1929, 128–134, • ''The Marines Who Wouldn't Fight'' (8-part syndicated series), North American Newspaper Alliance, September 1929 [ghostwritten by Dimitman] ==See also==