![]() ![]() Katz follows in the footsteps of Smedley Butler as he recounts the early history of American imperialism in his revelatory and groundbreaking new book Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire (St. Smedley Butler in China, 1900 (Marine Corps History Department)Īward-winning author Jonathan M. Although Butler was a widely revered American hero and darling of the press during his military career, today he is almost unknown, as are the actions he served in and later disavowed, including participating in brutal invasions, improvising terror campaigns, installing puppet leaders, creating militarized police forces to protect American profiteers, and erasing history by destroying archives and silencing anti-American opponents. In the last years of his life, however, he became an unlikely voice against war, fascism, capitalism, and imperialism. And Marine officer Smedley Butler (1881-1940), known as “the Fighting Quaker,” served with distinction in virtually all of these actions to expand American empire.īutler was the most highly decorated Marine before the Second World War and attained the rank of major general by the time of his retirement in 1931. The US Marines played a prominent role in making safe for democracy the far-flung targets of American imperialism. For most Americans, this bloody history of American conquest is presented, if at all, as a series of heroic adventures to bring seemingly less advanced peoples our ideals and to prepare them to govern themselves. Most of these violent campaigns are now forgotten. ![]() In some cases, the nations were annexed, the usually nonwhite populations were subjugated, and puppet governments that protected American interests were installed through force or other persuasion. The US military-often at the behest of American businesses and financial institutions-was at the forefront of interventions in numerous countries from Cuba and Haiti to China and the Philippines. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the United States began building a powerful empire beyond the contiguous states on the North American continent. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.” Smedley D. 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. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to Major-General. ![]() “I spent 33 years and 4 months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force-the Marine Corps. ![]()
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