Latest / Ridiculous History / Let's Start a Coup! Ep 1 – A Basket Full of Fascists

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Let's Start a Coup! Ep 1 – A Basket Full of Fascists · Ridiculous History

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: This is an I heeart original. Imagine a smoke filled room,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: like just any smoke filled room. No, no, the smoke
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: filled room. Ah, the smoke filled room, that mythical place
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: where nefarious plans are laid in, conspiracies are hatched. It's
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three, and the smoke filled room is occupied
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: by disgruntled masters of the universe. We're talking really rich,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: really powerful, really white guys, historical dudes. Yeah, and they
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: all really disliked the President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They joke
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: about getting rid of him all the time. I can
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: almost picture them now. Yeah, yes, I hate that guy.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: A traito to his class. Now, at some point the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: conversation about getting rid of FDR gets real. He must go,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I concur we must plan to the smoke filled rooms.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Us already here. Ah, so we are looks different. Someone
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: paint from I Heart Originals and School of Humans. This
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: is let's start a coup. I'm your host, Ben Buller,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and I'm your other host, Alex French, to bring you
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the story. You've done all the research, read the books,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: interviewed historians, but still there are some big gaps in
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the historical record. And we'll never know exactly what happened.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: So in those gaps we've had some fun. No, no,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: it else makes it fun. They oh mam episode, what
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: a basket full of fascists. A proper coup requires three ingredients.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: The first thing you need is a leader, but not
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: just any kind of leader. You need a dictator, one
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: who's actually a puppet so that we can call the shots,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: but nonetheless a strong man who commands respect, the man
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: on the white horse, if you will. I like where
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: you're going with that, quite as god, not so loud.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: The second ingredient you need muscle, and by muscle we
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: mean enough to march on the palace and overwhelm the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: guards and the Capitol police and then any remaining pitchfork
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: wielding loyalists. I know some fabulous ruffians from a terrible neighborhood. No, no,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: think classia. Columns of jack booted thugs, Oh fabulous, a
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: black uniform shirts with those wildly exciting arm biound. The
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: mind reels with the sartorial options. And you need a
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: loyal commander to lead that pack of lunatics. Yes, that's right, Alex.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: That person might be the most important piece of the puzzle.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: You better make sure your top general is on your side,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: that their loyalty is in the right place. This is
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: a huge deal. Who do washing genitals? No good? Noted say,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: you know, this reminds me of a story, an episode
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: from American history that nobody really knows or talks about
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: too much these days. It's a story about a plot
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to overthrow a sitting American president and the general who
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: claimed that he was recruited to lead the coup. Oh,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: it's a total banger. It's got everything, the seat, betrayal,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: dark comedy. I guess it is kind of dark in here. Well,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: then turn on a lamp, dummy, Oh there you are.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Our story takes place during a time in American history
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: when fascism still had that new car smell smack, in
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the middle of what's called the interwar period, those years
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: between the First and Second World Wars, the time of
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: social strife and political upheaval, toxicity courses through our political discourse.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: It felt back then a little bit like it does today.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: And here to tell us more about it is none
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: other than a man so loathsome so despicable that the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: musical Annie has an entire song about what a tool
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: he is that's a true story. I don't know why
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: everyone's calling it a great depression. I can't remember when
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: I last had such a swell time. It's President Herbert Hoover,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: who Well, I'm just gonna let him sink his own ship, America.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Cool it. There's only twenty five percent unemployment. That means
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: seventy five percent of you are lucky enough to have
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: jobs you hate. And so what if ninety percent of
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: West Virginia and Kentucky residents suffer from malnutrushan? I say,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: who'd want to live there? Anyway, mister Hoover. Point is,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: nobody is actually starving. The hoboes are better fad than
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: they have ever been. My producers giving me a look?
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: Was that bad? Should I not have thought that? Yeah?
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Empathy was never your strong suit, mister Hoover. They know,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: but look at the actual suit I'm wearing. It's fierce right.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: While homeowners are losing their houses at a rate of
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: one thousand a day, you refuse to freeze foreclosures, and
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I bad I'd have gotten no way with it if
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: it hadn't been for that meddling electorate. Sorry, herbs, that's
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: just the way it goes in November nineteen thirty two,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Franklin Delano Roosevelt wins the presidential election in a landslide.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: While it's heads funeralll this top Fox after his inauguration, Roosevelt,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Are you saying it right? Or am I? Is it
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Roosevelt or is it Roosevelt? I think they're both actually correct.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I mean I pronounce a guad Delano faith used to
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: be President man Alex go ahead. So after his inauguration,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Roosevelt calls an emergency session of Congress, during which the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: legislative branch rubber stamps New Deal legislation aimed at jump
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: starting the economy, one remaining instrument. It's kind of hard
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: to understand what Roosevelt is saying, but he's essentially asking
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: for broad executive power to fight the depression. He says,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: quote as great as the power that would be given
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: to me if we were in fact invaded by a
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: were in foe. Well, if that's what you want to do,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: go for it. I gas. Throughout this entire period, the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: idea that democracy has failed is everywhere, and there are
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: some very powerful voices advocating for dictatorship in the United States.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Some of these people own newspapers and motion picture companies.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: They held government office owned banks and huge corporations. Ideas
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: about the brokenness of democracy were on the front pages
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: of the paper and in the movies. These powerful people
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: believed there had to be a better way, a new
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: path that protected the status quo, while at the same
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: time giving them even more power. That way was well fascism.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Case in point. In nineteen thirty three, MGM released a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: remarkable photo drama that's a Depression era speak for movie.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: It's called Gabriel Over the White House. This film was
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: financed by media magnate William Randolph Hurst, also known as
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the inspiration for the classic film Citizen Kane. But like
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: in a bad way anyway. Hurst media holdings made him
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: one of the most powerful men in the world, and
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: he made a movie that has been mostly forgotten, but
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: it reveals the American elites fascistic fantasy of a strong
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: man who could just get stuff done. Democracy be damned.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: In Gabriel, Walter Houston plays Judd Hammond, an American politician
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: who has just been inaugurated as President of the United States.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: The film is set in nineteen thirties America. The country's
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: in peril, poverty, hunger, distrust of institutions. Here's audio of
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: a disgruntled reporter describing the climate at a press conference
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: early in the film. My paper's indictment against the government
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: is a staggering one. Millions of dollars are portant to
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: new Battleship farm as brent corn and wheat is thrown
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  Speaker 1: away into the sea while men and women are begging
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  Speaker 1: for bread. What does the new administration to say to this? Now?
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  Speaker 1: From the get go, it's abundantly obvious that Hammond is
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: not cut out for the job. He's just one. He's
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: part of this corrupt political machine that has led the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: American people into a horrific depression. Early in the film,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Hammond takes a presidential limo on a high speed joy
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  Speaker 1: ride for some reason, and he gets into a catastrophic
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: cratch cut two the Presidential ICEU, where Hammond is comatose.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: The prognosis is grim. Doctor, what is your opinion, I'm
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: afraid he's beyond any human health. But then we see
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: a tight shot of the hospital room's window curtain fluttering
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: in the breeze, and there is flooded with light. It's
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: a sign that the archangel Gabriel has entered the chamber
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: to take possession of the President's body. When President Hammond
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: comes to he is a changed man. He sits silently
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: in his hospital bed, reading and thinking. He's no longer
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: so slick. His hair is all messed up. It's a
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: little bit like Bernie Sanders. Honestly, do not bring me
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: into this, my bad Bernie. It's a nice impression. Do
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: you think the point is Suddenly? The fictional President Hammond
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: is a man of principle, careful thought, and deliberate action.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: He makes promises that sound a lot like some of
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: FDR's New Deal initiatives. I propose, therefore, to create an
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: army to be known as the Army of Construction. You'll
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: be enlisted subjectuminentary disc Later that night, at his State
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of the Union address, President Hammond fires his entire cabinet,
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  Speaker 1: and then he forces Congress to adjourn. He declares, and
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: of what I plan to do in the name of
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the people makes me a dictator. Then it is a
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: dictatorship based on Jefferson's definition of democracy, a government for
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the greatest good of the greatest number. He broadcast his plans.
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  Speaker 1: He's going to stop foreclosures he's going to protect people's
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  Speaker 1: money in banks. I propose immediately to give direct aid
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  Speaker 1: to the fifty five million American people who depend entirely
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: upon agriculture, without whose prosperity there can be no real
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: prosperity in the United States. And all of these things
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  Speaker 1: that President Hammond decrees, he makes them happen to hell
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  Speaker 1: with checks and balances. He's here to cut past the
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  Speaker 1: red tape. He's getting stuff done. He's become an FDR
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  Speaker 1: flavored dictator, but a dictator who does some good things
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  Speaker 1: is still a dictator. He's consolidated power. But in the
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: movie you don't see the nasty business that goes along
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: with taking complete control of the nation. It's Hollywood selling
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: softcore fascism. Boom love it. But what does that mean exactly? Fascism?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, more importantly, what did fascism mean during the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: interwar period. It's a cottage industry to answer this question.
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  Speaker 1: Whole books have been written and vibrantly disagreed with by
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: other scholars of fascism just to get to the question
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  Speaker 1: of a definition. That's Richard Stiegman Gaul. He's a writer
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: and associate history professor at Kent State He's written a
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: bunch and spectacularly on this topic. Stigman Gaul defines fascism
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  Speaker 1: as a hypernationalist, violent movement committed to the restoration of
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  Speaker 1: national greatness and the belief that extra legal means are
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  Speaker 1: required to restore that national greatness. Let's break that down
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: a bit. Stegman Goals as fascists are hypernationalists. They believe
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  Speaker 1: their nation is superior, and they must stop at nothing
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  Speaker 1: to advance and protect their version of it. They welcome violence.
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  Speaker 1: They're also importantly anti communist, and the last thing fascism
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  Speaker 1: insists that the legal state has been seized by people
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: who don't belong there. In fact, Stigman Goals says, there's
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: a good argument to be made that fascism is an
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  Speaker 1: American creation, that it first took shape right after the
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Civil War, when a bunch of Confederate soldiers established a
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: little something called the ku Klux Klan. The KKK believe
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: that the triumph of the Union over the Confederacy and
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: the triumph of electoral equality for newly freed African Americans
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  Speaker 1: is a destruction of the real America right, and so
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  Speaker 1: they're willing to go to extra legal lengths murder, terror
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  Speaker 1: to regain their own supremacy. In other words, the government
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  Speaker 1: isn't serving my interests, so I'm going to force it
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  Speaker 1: to by any means necessary, you know, drain the swamp.
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  Speaker 1: The interwar period was a time when thousands of Americans,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: dozens of extremist groups, media personalities, and politicians. They all
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: believe that democracy had failed. They felt like things had
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: gotten so bad that the time had come to try
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: something different. They wanted a dictator. After the break, we
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: join a robing mob of disgruntled soldiers as they occupied
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: the nation's capital, and we meet the General Leasi, a
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: hard eyed, awesome named Jarhead who's traveled the world and
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: is exactly no tolerance for tom foolery, a legend in
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: his time, a bigots biggot Major General Smedley Darlington Butler. Okay,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: so I know we said we'd introduce you to Smedley,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: but not quite yet. First we have to set this stage.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: We'll go back one year to nineteen thirty two, before
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: FDR gets elected. A lot of in the US are
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: flirting with fascism. One group in particular, veterans of the
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: First World War. They're broke, they're angry, and they hold
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Uncle Sam responsible. Three hundred veterans of the Great War
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: from Portland, Oregon mobilized to march on Washington and lobby
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: for immediate payment of their war bonuses, the money the
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: US government promised for their service during World War One.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: There's greedy vats. It's always more and more and more
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: with them. Oh wowur smoke filled room dwelling plutocrats are back.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Do you guys have any advice for the veterans. Yeah,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: here's one, be born rich, good advice. These veterans piled
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: onto eastbound free trains, vacant cattle cars, still stinking of manure,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: packing everything they needed in those little broomstick hung hobo's suitcase.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about. They're they're called bindles
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: in case you know you ever need to impress a hobo. Oh,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I promise you I won't. Yes. Along with ante and taxes,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: that's a word we do not need to know. High five.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: They call themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force the BEEF, a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: callback to the American Expeditionary Force that landed in France.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: As word of the BF spreads veterans from every corner
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: of the country, pack up their families and head for
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the capital. Two hundred from San Francisco, three hundred from Cleveland,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: five hundred from Chicago, and exactly none from my compound
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: and East Egg because me and the b Accoontms have
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: got better things will do. Look, honestly, these veterans got
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: a raw deal. They're converging on the nation's capital because
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: their military service paid them virtually nothing, leaving them badly
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in the hole when they got home. During this time
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: of poverty and misery, these veterans are amongst the most
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: vulnerable people in the entire country. After the war, the
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: government promised money in the form of bonus certificates that
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: weren't payable until nineteen forty five. Now that may not
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: seem like a big deal, but ask yourself, how much
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: value would you place on your paycheck if you couldn't
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: redeem it until twenty thirty six. The vets called these
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: certificates the two Stone Bonus because most everybody would be
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: dead before they could collect them. The first wave of
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: BF soldiers arrives in DC in late May. Hundreds take
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: shelter in the ruins of demolished buildings along Pennsylvania. In
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Constitution Avenue, not too far from the White House. Thousands
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: of others built a camp on the Anacostia Flats. Mobile
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: food carts provided by the War College find them and
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: stew and coffee. They also got their hands on lumber,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: nails and tin, empty bedsacks, and tons of hay for filling.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: A vast encampment of tents and shanties take shape, stretching
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: across the skyline, and the Salvation Army sets up a
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: library near the entrance of the camp. Sounds dusty. Newspapermen
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: remarked that the occupying crowd is governed by the military's
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: code of discipline. Walter Waters, the leader of the Beef,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: gave his men three rules. No panhandling, no liquor, and
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: no radical talk. Waters also led the Khaki Shirts, which
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: was often described as a closely knit semi military organization.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: The Khaki Shirts called themselves one hundred percent American, and
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: they would pounce on any suspected Commies. They would haul
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the accused before a kangaroo court and sentenced them to
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: belt lashings and expulsion from the camps. So what you're saying, Ben,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: is that if Walter Waters wasn't an actual fascist, he
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: was like fascist adjacent. Yeah, you know, alex I maybe
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: relatively new at this coup planning business, but I sniffed
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: some real potential in this massive gathering of disenchanted veterans. Well,
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: that might be the stew The vets had really gone
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: through it. They were deeply disillusioned by the grinding misery
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: of trench warfare in Europe, and then they come home
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: to a country sinking into crisis, and they're being disrespected
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: by political leaders who refused to pay their war bonuses.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Who was overwhelming and traumatic, and that lasted for decades,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: even in the thirties. It's still the long tale of
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: World War One, and not just the United States, but
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: in Europe particularly for example, Italian veterans of the war
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: came home with the same disillusionment, but instead of being disrespected,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Italian vets were lifted up by their political leaders. Historian
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Katie Holt told us about it. What Americans sur in
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Italy and the rise of fascism was kind of against
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: all arts, the fascists having a very different response to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the wartime experience, wearing the veteran status those who were
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: veterans on their sleeves, retaining the values of patriotism and
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: apparently retaining values of service. That whole experience in Italy
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: that American observerst sorce seemed like a perfect counter to
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the disillusionment the Americans had fell amongst themselves after the
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: First Tweld War. In just a few years, the FASCISTI
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: as they were known, formed an ascendant political movement, the
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: National Fascist Party. Benito Mussolini, the organization's head hauncho, called
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: for a strong man to revive Italy. All over the country,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: armed vigilante squads known as black Shirts organized to keep
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the streets clear of socialist, labor, radicals and anarchist Mussolini
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: used the black Shirts to knock off potential rivals, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: they became known for extreme violets. The FASCISTI sound fashitty,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: well language, alex We're a family show. In October nineteen
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: twenty two, flanked by some thirty thousand black Shirts, Mussolini
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: marched on Rome, all but seizing control of the government.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: At least according to the propaganda and two Americans. For
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: fifteen years or so, fascism doesn't seem like such a
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: bad thing. The new National Fascist Party was really getting
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: stuff done, and so what you start to see that
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: many people look to fascist Italy and say, look what
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Missleini's doing. In fascist Italy. He's creating philips, he's doing
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: public works, he's producing a welfare state that enables great
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: maternal aid, infants care for working mothers, and he's appearing
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: to create a very functional social safety net and a
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: welfare state. Americans, on the other hand, still felt hoodwinked
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: into joining the war. Then the stock market crashed and
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: the Great Depression set in. In present Hoover did basically
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: nothing to help Americans weather the storm. Against that batchup,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: you have many Americans who almost provocatively say, what we
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: mean right now is the dictator. And it's really their
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: way of saying that democracy isn't serving us. Democracy hasn't
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: been doing anything. People haven't been really going to the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: polls or haven't been going to the post for the
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: right reason for the best part of the decade, and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: so we might as well have a dictator in the
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: United States. I'll Duche's Squadristi, the Black Shirts, and later
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Hitler's Brown Shirts all became a model for American prutal
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: fascist organizations. The White Shirt Crusaders, the Khaki Shirts, the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Gray Shirts, the Silver Legion. At this point, they're going
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: to run out of colors. Bat yeah. The Defenders of
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the Christian Faith, the American Nationalist Confederation, the National Gentile League.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: They popped up everywhere. They were nativist, populist. Some held
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: aspirations greater than garden variety terror and violence, like holding
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: public office and transforming their world views into actual legislation.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: They wanted to force Jewish people into ghettos. They wanted
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: to limit citizenship and find ways to exclude large numbers
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: of what they called undesirables from voting. For example, the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Black Legion, a night riding terror organization, emerged from the Midwest,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: spinning out of a KKK security force. They attracted members
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: who didn't believe the clan's methods were extreme enough. What yeah,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: I know, right. And these weren't just civilians. This group
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: was rumored to include veterans, police chiefs, a city councilman,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: even officials from the Department of Justice. In short, the
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: people who were supposed to keep the peace conspired to
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: sow chaos. The Black Legion murdered and kidnapped with impunity.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: They even had a dedicated arson squad. And then there
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: was the American Legion. By American Legion, Alex, do you
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: mean the old guys with the wood paneled clubhouses who
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: sometimes sponsor Little League? Yeah, yeah, very different organization back then.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: No discussion of American fascism in the Inner War period
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: is complete without a discussion of the American Legion. Most
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: of the historians we spoke with about fascism pointed to
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the American Legion as being a close cousin of Italy's
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Black Shirts. Here's historian Richard Steigmanoligan. The idea is, you know,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: so many men have sacrificed for the nation, we should
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: found an organization that is designed to represent their interests.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: And the American Legions various flirtations with fascism already are
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: a huge instance in which soldiers, or perhaps more accurately,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: ex soldiers, find themselves drawn to fascism. I mean, you've
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: got very explicit and open proclamations by the American Legion
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: itself that quote unquote, we are the American SQUADRISKI, named,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: of course after Mussolini's black shirted vigilantes. The American Legion
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: were such fans of Mussolini that they invited him to
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: speak at their convention in nineteen twenty three. He declined, Now,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: these American Legion guys weren't all talk either. The Legion
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: practiced in aggressive anti communist vigilantism. In nineteen nineteen and Centralia, Washington,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: there was this notorious street battle between the American Legion
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and members of a far left labor activism group called
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblis.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: A major fracas broke out at an Armistice Day parade.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: It culminated in the death of several legionnaires and the
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: kidnapping of a Wobbling named Wesley Everest from the local jail.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: They lynched it and hanged his body from a bridge.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: This was gruesome, gruesome stuff. So remember that massive disenchanted
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: vets converging on the nation's capitol in mid June nineteen
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: thirty two. There's no doubt that some portion of the
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: crowd carries a membership for the American Legion, the Black Legion,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: or the Silver Legion. Pick your proto fascist mob. It's
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: starting to make the hairs on the back of my neck.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Stand up picture in a blazing hot day, humid with
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the scorching sun. The Bonus army is gathered in Washington, DC.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: All of these guys packed together in close quarters on
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: that blistering concrete. There's palpable tension in the air. They're
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: waiting for news from Capitol Hill because Congress has finally
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: begun voting on the war Bonus Bill. They've been waiting
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: years to be paid for their service, and if Congress
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: passes the bill, tens of thousands of vets could finally
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: be on a path out of hunger and poverty. The
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: New York Times reports a really visible sag in the
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: mood the veterans. No defeat is all but certain, and
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: if by some miracle, the Senate decides it's a good
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: idea to write war veterans a two point four billion
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: dollar check. President Hoover is absolutely gonna Vito. The discussion
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: on the floor of the Senate Chamber lasts all day. Inside,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the senators can hear the crowd surrounding the building. At
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: nine thirty pm, Walter Waters, the leader of the gathered veterans,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: comes onto the steps of the Capitol and announces that
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: the bill has been defeated, sixty two to eighteen. These
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: are hopeless men with hopeless families, They've traveled hundreds of
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: miles to lobby for a life changing sum of cash
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: that they believe they rightly deserve, and their futures are
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: being decided by a bunch of rich senators. So what
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: do you think happens next? Oh? I know these homeless
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: fellows are going to burn down the Capitol. Wait no,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: it looks like they're gonna sing America the beautiful Furber
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: Waves orperble mounds. Man. You know, as singers, they sure
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: do make wonderful hobos. A month passes, sixteen thousand plus
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: veterans remain in DC. By mid July, the bonus Marcher's
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: desperation grows acute. On the last day Congress is in session,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: thousands of angry veterans returned to the hill surrounding the Capitol,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: forcing terrified legislators to escape through underground tunnels. So is
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: this the pot where they stormed the Capitol? Not quite. Instead,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: President Hoover, true to his name, is going to evict
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: the beef from Washington, DC begone. Dms by, Now you're
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: wondering why has Ben Bolin dragged me into this fitted Hooverville.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: I thought this was supposed to be a podcast about
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: a plot hatched by a cabal of megawealthy industrialists to
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: overthrow an American president. Right, Okay, perfect timing, Alex. Here
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: it comes the reason we're here. He's about to trudge
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: through the ankle deep muck of Anacostia Flats and straight
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: into our story. A two time Medal of Honor recipient
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: and the holder of the Marine corps highest honor, the
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Brevett Medal, the most decorated marine and the history of
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the service at the time, he is a legit celeb
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, and yes, that is his
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: full and very fancy name. He climbs onto a stage
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: in front of a growing crowd of bonus army vets hi.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: He's a wiry five foot eight with ramrod plusture, and
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: his nickname is Old Gimlet Eye because in those days,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: gimlet eye was an expression to signify a piercing stare.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: He sports a massive tattoo of the Marine Corps Loban
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: anchor on his chest and goes from my throat to
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: my gun. Yeah, filthy animal. What Smedley Butler is truly
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: famous for, however, is the care he takes of other Marines.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Here I clipped out the latest dick placing for you.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: It's a real nail binder. Enjoy but he was passed
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: up for the role of Marine Corps Commandants, the top
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: job shortly after he retired from the Corps. Now at
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: fifty years old, Smedley Butler finds himself in the midst
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: of an existential reckoning. Who am I when I'm not
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: doing nice things for vets like clipping comic strips. He
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: stays out on the road for months at a time,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: giving speeches to veteran groups for two hundred and fifty
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: bucks a pop. He gives a big cut of every
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: paycheck to the veteran's unemployment fund. You see to him,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: the men in this bonus army crowd, these are his men,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and they feel the same way about him. There's a
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: loyalty here, one that cannot be bought. There are four
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: and a half million veterans in the United States. Smedley
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: thinks they could be a powerful voting block if only
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: they banded together. When Smedley Butler has introduced, the crowd
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: greets him with a quote enthusiastic roar of a claim
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: that echoes through Washington like thunder. Take it from me.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: This is the greatest demonstration of the excuse me, actor
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: who's playing Smedley Butler? Why do you want? We have
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: an actual recording of Smedley's voice to play here go
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: all right, then I'm gonna go take five. Okay, So
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: here's the clip. Take it from me. This is the
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: greatest demonstration of Americanism we've ever had, pure Americans willing
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: to take this beating as you've taken it. Stand right, steady,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: You keep every law, and why the hell shouldn't the
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: hell yeah, I've done all the bleeding for this country
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: and for this law and this constitution. It's over. The
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: beef soldiers won't be getting their money, but the Bonus
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Army hangs in DC for another week and a half.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: On the morning of July twenty eighth, the cops begin
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: to yank men from the ruined buildings on Pennsylvania Avenue,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: the greatest concentration of fighting troops in Washington since eighteen
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: sixty five, to rout the Bonus Army from government property,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: which they have been occupying without permission. Walter Waters, their leader,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: urges the men to cooperate and go peacefully, but some
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: veterans start throwing rocks at the police. Soon two veterans
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: are shot dead near the White House. General Douglas MacArthur
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: shows up in an olive green field coat and ten
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: knickers and wears his hat jauntily askewed. That's right, that
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: General MacArthur, one of the country's most recognized military leaders today,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: though he's her to crack some American skulls. He's got
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: six hundred armed soldiers and six tanks, and Macarthurs say so.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: The cavalry moves on the ruined buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: unleashing a barrage of tear gas on beef occupied buildings.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: And so they're being forced out of their shack by
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: smoke bomb and tear gas hurled by the troops who
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: have been called out by the President of the United States.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: The infantry follows with rifle mounted bayonets. Beef soldiers put
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: up a fight, but not much of one. In the evening,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: having won the first battle, MacArthur directs his troops to
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: torch every tent in the beef camp. It's a spectacle
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: unparalleled in the history of the country. A day of
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: bloodshed and riot reminiscent of actual conditions in France in seventeen.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: President Hoover watches all of this. He sees the fires
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: burn from a white house window, and then he goes
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: to bed. The light from those tuns is soy bright,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: you guys, But not to worry. I got my eyemasky
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: kittens night. The violence leaves at least two veterans dead
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and at least two more veterans severely injured with gunshotings.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Dozens more are hospitalized with concussions, burns, and gashes. People
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: are wounded by bricks and hatchets. The wife of a
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: veteran from Dallas is run over by a cavalry horse.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: A fourteen year old boy is treated for serious saber wounds.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: He's not the only one. Gradually, the Bonus Army realizes
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: that they'd better be good, and a general retreat begins.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Thousands of vets hobble away from the nation's capital to Johnstown,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania to regroup. I don't found the nine thousand Bonus
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: a good. Immediately threw out tents and shacks on themselves
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: and finally beaten down. But unwilling to accept defeat, the
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: beef once again ask Major General Smedley Butler to take command,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: at least according to the newspapers, while the scenes of
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: MacArthur's soldiers gassing and burning Great War veterans in Smedley,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: he just tells the paper the b ef men should
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: return to their homes. Major General Smedley Butler is, however,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: far less reticent about attacking President Herbert Hoover. God, Smedley Butler,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: leave me alone. I don't come to your encampment and
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: tell your veterans what to do. So you can imagine
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Smedley's delight when the press flays Hoover for his treatment
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: of the vets. Even the Washington Daily News, sort of
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the Newsmax of its day writes, what a pitiful spectacle
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: if the army must be called out to make war
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: on unarmed citizens, this is no longer America. Smedley Butler
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: goes on the road stumps frift Yard during the thirty
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: two presidential campaign, declares himself a Hoover for ex president
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: Republican and you can quote me on that. Look. Smedley
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: is a demagogue. There's no real other way to put it.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: He has a hard line populist message, speaking directly to veterans,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: From time to time he does lectures on the same
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: bill as legendary rabble rouser Huey Long All. In all,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Smedley gives about forty anti Hoover speeches. In the lead
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: up to the nineteen thirty two election, mosebf Boys were
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: cashed in the battlefield of France in nineteen eighteen and
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: again in the streets of Washington and thirty two, And
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: when Americans went to the polls in November of nineteen
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: thirty two, Roosevelt's election was more of a tsunami than
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: a landslide. Smedley Butler spent the election at his home
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: in Newton Square, Pennsylvania, New fdr Victory party for ull Smedley,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: though he's not the gloating type n by day, just
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: saving the country like I do. Yet, despite all the
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: miles Smedley logged for Roosevelt, after the election, the President
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: elect doesn't want anything to do with him. It feels
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: a little bit like there are no more battles to
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: fight for Smedley. He's out to pasture. He writes a
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: book about his Marine Corps adventures called Old Gimlet Eye.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: He reads the newspaper in his easy chair. He delivers
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: speeches to any group that will have him. The Women's
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Club of East Orange, New Jersey, the Bristol Father's Association,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Beautiful m I right, the New England Iron and Hardware Association,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Nice Hammers, everybody. Roosevelt wins the election in November, but
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: he is not inaugurated until March. The intervening months are
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: the hardest of the depression, and Hoover is still doing nothing.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, I am like so sick of this job.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: People were desperate for the government to just help them
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: get by. Tell me about it. I'm seeing hardship at
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: every damn stop of my speaking tours, and so Smedley.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Butler's speeches take on strong undertones of class conflict. While
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: decorating veterans with purple hearts, he tells a Memorial Day
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: crowd in Passaic, New Jersey, this isn't just a two
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: centimental Even JP Morgan can't buy one man. Finally help comes.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: After taking office, Roosevelt enacts emergency financial reforms. Yeah that's great,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: But what's all this financial balderdash have to do with me?
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I got nothing to do with us fat cat bankers. Well,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: that may seem like the case major General. But one
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: day in July nineteen thirty three, you're sitting in your
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: favorite easy chair. I am just reading the early edition
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: of the paper, Okay and Butler Residence, Major General Smellie
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Darlington Butler speaking. When you answer, it's a man who
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: says he's from the American Legion. He says someone's on
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: their way up from a nearby Legion hall. They'll be
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: there soon, and they're requesting an audience. And then how
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: is it there's a knock on the door. Yeah, I heard,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: and for you, Major General Smedley Butler. Nothing will ever
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: be the scene? Why is it? Something bad? Sorry? Smedley,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: no spoilers, It'll have to wait till the next episode.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: A dry up. Next time on Let's Start a Coup?
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: Who is Smedley Butler? Really? You're so smart? You tell me.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Tune in as we explore the seamy underside of Smedley's career.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Wartz and dol To ask why did so many evil
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: people genuinely think of him as their kind of hero?
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Join us to find out. Let's Start a Coup as
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts. Our
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: hosts are Alex French and Ben Bolin. The show is
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: written by Alex French, with additional writing by Joken Osian.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Original music and scoring by Joken Ocean. Character voices by
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Joken Ocean. Sounds like someone didn't get enough attention and
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: they're a childhood Elis Buttas is our producer. Emilia Brouck
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: is our senior producer. Sound design, additional scoring, mixing and
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: mastering by Alexander Overington. Our story editor is Lacy Roberts.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: Fact checking by Austin Thompson. Sean Riggins is our recording engineer.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Recorded at Tune Welders in Atlanta, Georgia. Executive producers are
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Jason English, Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley. Special
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: thanks to Ethan Trucks and Adam Overett. Sound licensed from
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: Critical Past and the Museum and University of South Carolina
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Moving Image Research Collection. Additional clips courtesy of the National
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Archives and Records Administration. If you're enjoying the show, help
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: us get the word out by leaving a rating in
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: your favorite podcast app, and if you're not buzz off,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: tune in again next time for Let's Start a Coup
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: School of Humans