BUSINESS PLOT

Opening

On 20 November 1934 Smedley Butler, a retired Marine major general twice awarded the Medal of Honor, told a special House committee in New York that a Wall Street bond salesman had asked him to lead a veterans' army of 500,000 men. Roosevelt would stay in office, but a new "secretary of general affairs" would take over the running of the country. The salesman, Gerald C. MacGuire of Grayson M.-P. Murphy and Co., said he had backers and money.

MacGuire denied it under oath. The New York Times called the story a gigantic hoax. But in February 1935 the McCormack-Dickstein committee reported that it had verified all the pertinent statements Butler made except the coup proposal itself, and that there was no question the attempts had been discussed and planned. No one was prosecuted. The backers Butler named were never called, and no army ever formed.

Timeline

July 1932The Bonus Army of First World War veterans is driven out of Washington by troops under Douglas MacArthur. Butler had addressed the marchers.

About 1 July 1933MacGuire and William Doyle, a Massachusetts Legion figure, visit Butler at Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, and suggest he run for national commander of the American Legion.

Summer 1933MacGuire returns with a speech urging the Legion's Chicago convention to back a return to the gold standard, and shows Butler a bank book with about $42,000 in deposits.

September 1933In a Newark hotel room MacGuire throws $18,000 in thousand-dollar bills on the bed. Butler refuses them. The heir Robert Sterling Clark visits Butler and urges the speech. Butler declines.

October 1933The Legion convention in Chicago passes a gold standard resolution without him.

August 1934After a tour of Europe, MacGuire meets Butler at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia and, by Butler's account, proposes the veterans' organization and the coup.

13 September 1934The reporter Paul Comly French interviews MacGuire in New York.

20 November 1934Butler and French testify in executive session. MacGuire testifies the same day.

24 November 1934The committee issues a statement summarising the testimony.

15 February 1935The committee's final report goes to the House.

25 March 1935MacGuire dies of pneumonia in New Haven, aged 36.

Key figures

Smedley D. Butler, retired major general of Marines, by 1933 a public critic of what he called his years as a high-class muscle man for big business.

Gerald C. MacGuire, bond salesman and Connecticut Legion member.

Robert Sterling Clark, Singer sewing machine heir and art collector, MacGuire's principal, who had known Butler in China.

Paul Comly French, reporter for the Philadelphia Record and New York Evening Post.

John W. McCormack and Samuel Dickstein, chairman and vice-chairman of the committee.

Physical and documentary trail

The record is the committee's public statement of November 1934, the hearing transcripts, with some passages withheld as hearsay and later published by John L. Spivak in New Masses, and the final report, House Report 153 of the 74th Congress. MacGuire admitted meeting Butler at the Bellevue-Stratford, though for twenty minutes, and admitted receiving money from Clark. French testified that MacGuire told him, "We need a fascist government in this country to save the Nation from the Communists", and named Butler as the ideal leader.

There is no question but that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient.

Corrections to the earlier version of this report. The army MacGuire described was 500,000 men, modelled on the French Croix de Feu, not an unspecified "hundreds of thousands from the American Legion". The committee found more than talk: it said the attempts were planned. The earlier claim that Butler had publicly described the bonus marchers as deserving better than gas could not be sourced and has been dropped. The committee's final quotation is sometimes printed without the word "but".

Things you might not know

• Butler offered a counter-army. He testified he told MacGuire that if 500,000 men advocated anything smelling of fascism, he would raise 500,000 more and "lick the hell out of you".
• He knew about marked bills. Refusing the $18,000, Butler said he reminded MacGuire he had once been a policeman, as Philadelphia's director of public safety, and that the numbers would have been taken.
• The money was about gold first. Clark, by Butler's account, said he had 30 million dollars and would spend half to save the other half. His stated concern was the gold standard.
• A second veterans' leader spoke up. James Van Zandt, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said he had also been approached by agents of Wall Street.
• Hollywood used the testimony. David O. Russell's film Amsterdam (2022) based Robert De Niro's general on Butler and closed with newsreel of Butler's account.

Competing explanations

A real conspiracy by financiers. Butler's sworn account, French's independent interview and the committee's verdict support it. The financiers Butler named denied it and were never examined, and nothing beyond MacGuire's words ties them to a coup.

A salesman's fantasy. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. thought MacGuire had some wild scheme but that the gap between contemplation and execution was considerable. Hans Schmidt, Butler's biographer, saw MacGuire as an inconsequential trickster whose employers kept their distance.

Influence peddling magnified. The historian Robert F. Burk suggested a mixture of real lobbying by a few financiers with veterans' ties and Butler's self-serving charges against his political enemies.

Later life of the case

The Business Plot is now a standard chapter of 1930s American history, sometimes called the Wall Street Putsch. Most historians accept that something was discussed and doubt that the republic was in danger. A 2007 claim that Prescott Bush was involved has been disputed as a research error.

Finding

MacGuire talked about a fascist veterans' army and wanted Butler to lead it. Butler swore to it, French heard MacGuire say much the same, and a congressional committee believed them. But the coup proposal itself was made to Butler alone, MacGuire denied it, and no financier was ever questioned. The offer at the heart of the plot rests on Butler's word alone.

What still will not resolve: whether anyone with money stood behind MacGuire's coup talk, as opposed to his gold-standard lobbying. The men who could have answered were never asked under oath.