Wall Street's History of Fascism · Investigation · 1933–1935
The Plot to Seize the White House.
In 1933–34, a group of Wall Street financiers allegedly tried to recruit one of America's most decorated Marines to march on Washington and sideline FDR. A congressional committee said the plan was real. No one was charged.
FACT
§2 · Thesis
A Marine general testified under oath that Wall Street money tried to recruit him for a coup against Roosevelt — and the House committee credited the core of his account while declining to pursue the prominent men he named.
The gap between 'a committee found it real' and 'no one faced consequences' is the story.
The number
0veterans
the private army Gerald MacGuire pitched Butler on leading to Washington — financed by wealthy backers — to push Roosevelt into a figurehead role and install a business-friendly 'Secretary of General Affairs.'
Butler's McCormack–Dickstein testimony (1934)
§5 · Graded Claim
On November 20, 1934, Smedley Butler — one of the most decorated Marines in US history — testified under oath to the House about a plot to depose FDR.
FACT
He told the McCormack–Dickstein Committee that MacGuire had pitched him on leading roughly 500,000 veterans to Washington to push Roosevelt aside. That he gave this sworn testimony is a matter of the congressional record.
§5 · Graded Claim
The committee said the plan was real — corroborated by MacGuire's own correspondence — and no one was charged.
FACT
The February 1935 report credited the core of Butler's account, adding it was 'corroborated in the correspondence of MacGuire with his principal, Robert Sterling Clark.' MacGuire denied coup intent and died months later; the committee declined to pursue the prominent men Butler named, calling that testimony 'hearsay.' No prosecutions followed.
On the record
“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.”
— McCormack–Dickstein Committee report, February 15, 1935
§5 · Graded Claim
The money orbit was American blue-blood capital — the Morgan and du Pont world, not who the myths claim.
FACT
MacGuire was a bond salesman at Grayson M-P Murphy & Co (Murphy a Morgan-linked banker); his European trip was bankrolled by Singer heir Robert Sterling Clark. Butler named John W. Davis (Morgan's chief counsel) and Thomas Lamont (a Morgan partner), whom the committee waved off. The overlapping American Liberty League (~30% du Pont-funded) was the 'respectable' anti-New-Deal front from the same milieu.
§5 · Graded Claim
The New York Times dismissed the plot as a 'gigantic hoax' in 1934 — then conceded, after the committee reported, that the fascist march 'was actually contemplated.'
FACT
The paper (Nov 22, 1934) called Butler's account a 'bald and unconvincing narrative.' After the committee reported, it ran the headline 'Plan for March on Capital Is Held Proved' (Feb 16, 1935). Ridicule first, correction in the fine print later — a template for how uncomfortable elite stories get managed.
§5 · Graded Claim
Whether the Business Plot was a viable, about-to-launch coup is contested.
PROBABLY TRUE
That a plan was discussed and planned is FACT (the committee said so). That it was a viable coup is contested: Schlesinger called it a 'cocktail putsch' and MacGuire may have been a blowhard; others treat it as a real if aborted design by a small core of financiers. We land on PROBABLY_TRUE that it was a serious, funded scheme — not mere fantasy — while stating its odds of success are unknowable.
§7 · Why it matters now
Why it matters, and where it connects.
The same Wall Street world was, in these years, financing fascism abroad — documented finance, not a role in the coup. Sullivan & Cromwell, home to John Foster and Allen Dulles, was the central conduit for US capital into Nazi Germany, and Allen Dulles was a director of the Schroder banking corporation whose Cologne cousin hosted the January 1933 meeting that cleared Hitler's debts. We assert the financing and the directorship — we do NOT assert the Dulleses joined the Business Plot, nor the antisemitic-sourced claim they were 'in the room' at that meeting. It is why this sits beside the Dulles Blueprint.
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