Major General Smedley Butler was born 136 years ago today (July 30, 1881). He was a decorated Marine Corps major general known almost as much for his searing indictment of defense contractors as he was for leadership on the battlefield. In 1933, he testified before Congress that wealthy industrialists approached him in a plot to overthrow the government of Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Butler as dictator (much as what was being done by fascists in Europe at the time), an allegation denied by the industrialists by which a special report of the House of Representatives confirmed in part. After he retired, he wrote a booklet entitled War is a Racket where he reflected on his many military campaigns and concluded that the real beneficiary of war are the corporations who both profiteer during war and gain the spoils after the war. When he died in 1940, he was the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. #PROUAW ... See MoreSee Less