I spent 33 years in the Marines most of my time being a
high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and
the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for Capitalism.
—from War Is a Racket
WAR IS A RACKET
Why don’t those damned oil companies fly their own flags on
their personal property—maybe a flag with a gas pump on it.
—Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler, 1937
WAR IS A RACKET
AMENDMENT FOR PEACE
AMENDMENT FOR PEACE
Major General Smedley D. Butler
(Originally printed in Woman's Home Companion, September, 1936.)
I PROPOSE an Amendment for Peace, to the Constitution of the
United States:
1. The removal of members of the land armed forces from within the continental limits of the United States and the Panama Canal Zone for any cause whatsoever is prohibited.
2. The vessels of the United States Navy, or of the other branches of the armed service, are hereby prohibited from steaming, for any reason whatsoever except on an errand of mercy, more than five hundred miles from our coast.
3. Aircraft of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps is hereby prohibited from flying, for any reason whatsoever, more than seven
hundred and fifty miles beyond the coast of the United States.
Such an amendment would be absolute guarantee to the women of America that their loved ones never would be sent overseas to be needlessly shot down in European or Asiatic or African wars that are no concern of our people.
SUCH an amendment, linked with adequate naval and military
defenses at home, would guarantee everlasting peace to our nation.
"I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag."
— Smedley D. Butler, USMC 1933