Business Plot

The Business Plot, also called the Wall Street Putsch, was a political conspiracy in 1933 in the United States to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Smedley Butler as dictator. Butler, a retired Marine Corps major general, testified in 1934 before the House Special Committee on Un-American Activities that wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans' organization with him as its leader and use it in a coup d'état. Although no one was prosecuted, the congressional committee final report said that "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." Most major news media dismissed the plot, with a New York Times editorial characterizing it as a "gigantic hoax". When the committee's final report was released, the Times said the committee "purported to report that a two-month investigation had convinced it that General Butler's story of a Fascist march on Washington was alarmingly true" and "alleged that definite proof had been found that the much publicized Fascist march on Washington, which was to have been led by Major Gen. Smedley D. Butler, retired, according to testimony at a hearing, was actually contemplated". The individuals involved all denied the existence of a plot. While historians have questioned whether a coup was actually close to execution, most agree that some sort of subversive plan was contemplated and discussed.