The plot of the upper 1% and major corporations to overthrow American government existed between July and November, 1933. The McCormack-Dickstein Committee began Congressional hearings in New York City on November 20, 1934. A final report was issued February l5, 1935.
But – chances are near 100%. YOU. haven’t heard of this plot. Because. - it has been covered up. It is highly unlikely. YOU. have heard of this plot in ANY. American classroom – high school or college.
If you are a dedicated American, then this FAR Right plot is discussed in Jules Archer’s. “The Plot to Seize the White House.” As Time Magazine said: ”Fascinating and alarmingly true!”
The hero was double Medal of Honor winner General Smedley Butler. The plotters, a who’s who of the top 1% and top corporations, needed “boots on the ground.” They made the mistake of contacting General Butler. The plan was for Butler to lead a march of World War I veterans against the Roosevelt administration. Butler contacted Congress.
Among the guilty parties were executives of Standard Oil of New Jersey, the Chase Bank, the Texas Company, ITT, Ford, Sterling Products. Helping them were government officials: a Secretary of Commerce, an assistant Secretary of State, and ambassadors to France and Great Britain.
Related material on this era can be found in Charles Higham’s. “Trading With The Enemy. An Expose of Nazi-American Money Plot of 1933-1949.” Included here is a 1944 Swiss bank discussion of $378 million in looted Nazi gold for use of Nazi leaders AFTER. the war.
Edwin Black’s. “IBM and The Holocaust. The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation”. documents how IBM’s technology made the operation of Nazi Germany possible. Black traces the money flow, during the war, from Nazi Germany to the U.S. IBM headquarters. IBM was “too important” to the US in the ‘Cold War” so they escaped punishment
More related information is contained by Bradley W. Hart’s. “Hitler’s American Friends. The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States. Hart eerily relates many events and actions that sound all too familiar: the goal of Nazi propaganda was to create confusion by sowing discord and turning Americans against each other; there was a Nazi plot to meddle in the 1940 presidential election; and “The darkest underbellies of American society were at the heart of this: anti-Semitism, religious bigotry, and greed..fundamental forces drew these groups together.”
The current Far Right began to reemerge in the late 1940s – early 1950s “Red Scare’: ”McCarthyism”; then the “John Birch Society”: then Nixon’s 1968 “law and order” campaign with it’s ‘Southern Strategy.”
It is not a coincidence recent authoritarian parties have all opposed women’s rights, civil rights, labor rights and unions, press freedoms, accountability; and favor mass rallies where demagogues entertained adoring crowds of “true believers,” and approved violence in the streets against their opponents [who are often ‘untermenschen’]
Serious students of recent American events should also read John W. Dean and Bob Altemeyer’s “Authoritarian Nightmare.” Based on Altemeyer’s decades of research nad study of recent events, this 2020 book came to the conclusion about 14% of American adults were Far Right enough to be considered supporters of authoritarian leaders, many just waiting for the next Far Right authoritarian to lead them.
SO – where does this leave us??? Start with Franklin’s famous September, 1787, response to a question about what the 1787 Constitutional Convention had created. Franklin: ”A republic, if you can keep it.”
THE question in 2024 and beyond: how many Americans WANT. to preserve what remains of our “democracy”???
Another important point to consider: just from the evidence above – “It Can Happen Here” - democracy is fragile, and there are many on the Far Right who have DEMONSTRATED their desire to change America to an oligarchic theocracy. Currently, these people hold power, have huge fortunes to spend, are often in the news spouting their anti-democratic propaganda – always dressed u in some plausible rationale -like that for the 2017 tax cuts, or for “supreme court’ rulings of “Shelby County,” ”Citizens United,” and “Dobbs.”
In 1933 – the American people elected Franklin Roosevelt. The Germans elected Adolf Hitler. Democracy is fragile. o
With Justice For All 