Gangsters of Capitalism

“The one who deals the blow forgets.
The one who carries the scar remembers.”
—Haitian proverb

This is my new favorite book. It will undoubtedly reach my top 5 of the year and is my #1 recommendation about the history of US Imperialism.

This book ties together 3 stories:
• A biography of Major General Smedley Butler and his adventures in US Imperialism from the Spanish-American War to campaigning against war before WW2.
• The author traveling the world to see the real places associated with Smedley's adventures
• An expanded history of US Imperialism beyond what Smedley Butler was involved in.

His story IS the story of US Imperialism. He fought the Spanish after the original false flag explosion of the USS Maine, resulting in the US colonizing Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the creation of the infamous military installation in Guantanamo Bay. He was in China during the Boxer Rebellion, the first time the United States invaded China, along with other Imperial nations. Then he defended corporate oil interests the SECOND time the US sent soldiers into China. He personally overthrew the democracy of Haiti and implemented slave labor. This is why Haitians see him as a devil, but Americans don't have any idea about any of this.

He did a lot of terrible things at the behest of the US government. He also helped stop a fascist coup to overthrow FDR. One that has eerie similarities to the January 6th putsch.

But it wasn't until he left the military that he was fully able to articulate what he truly was: A racketeer for capitalism.

There's a reason why the US empire grew in power right alongside US companies becoming international mega-corporations. These two things went hand in hand. Smedley Butler saw it. Hell, he DID it!

“I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank [now PNC] boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers [now BBH] in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil [now Chevron, ExxonMobil, Amoco, and Marathon] went its way unmolested”

He committed atrocities against oppressed people for the interests of corporations that still exist to this day. He blazed the trail for what the US Government and corporations continue to do to this day: oppress peoples across the world to extract wealth from weaker nations. We are rich because they are poor. Imperialism is truly the highest form of Capitalism. Two heads of the same hydra.

But there's another head of that hydra. The specter of fascism hovers over this nation. Capitalists stood with the fascists then, they plotted to overthrew the government in 1933 to stop the modest Social Democrat reforms from FDR, the self-proclaimed “savior of capitalism”. They stood with Mussolini and Hitler before the US joined and actively got rich off of those fascist countries. And they'll do it again if given the chance. Because they would rather give up Democracy itself than an iota of profits. Fascism is Capitalism in decay.

Read this book. It's incredible and important.