That dishonor is shared by the leaders of the American Liberty League, a cabal of CEOs that included J.P. Morgan, Jr., Irénée du Pont, Robert Clark, and the then-heads of General Motors, General Foods, and Birds Eye.
The year was 1933. The target was FDR.
Inaugurated in March, FDR had promised a "New Deal" to help lift the nation out of depression. A boon to working men and women, as well as the unemployed, the New Deal incensed the nation's CEOs, who labelled the patrician FDR a "tyrant" and "traitor to his class."
It plotted to recruit a popular Marine Corps general, Smedley Butler, to lead a half million angry veterans in a march on Washington, with the goal of removing FDR from the White House at the barrel of a gun.
Thirty-four years later, the committee chair, Rep. John McCormack, told a reporter, "We were in the depths of a severe depression, and we had a good man, Roosevelt, in the White House.
The League's leaders were ready to spend $30 million to supply the veterans Remington Rifles—the equivalent of $500 million today.
But General Butler, a patriot, would have none of it and exposed the League's plot to the FBI. He also shared before a Congressional committee the details of what the newspapers called the "Wall Street putsch."
The Congressional committee's final report, delivered 11 months after FDR's inauguration, stated that the committee had "received evidence showing that certain persons had made an attempt to establish a fascist organization in this country.
"There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."
"There is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."
"The plotters definitely hated the New Deal because it was for the people, not for the moneyed interests, and they were willing to spend a lot of their money to dump Mr. Roosevelt.
"If General Butler had not been the patriot he was, and if they had been able to maintain secrecy, the plot certainly might very well have succeeded."
HAT TIP: Thanks to Ann Ramsey for pointing me to this forgotten bit of history.
