Smedley Butler

Smedley Darlington Butler (1881 to 1940) was a United States Marine Corps major general and, later in life, an anti-war advocate. Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, he served for 34 years and fought in the Philippine-American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Banana Wars, the Mexican Revolution and World War I. He won two Medals of Honor for separate actions, at Veracruz in 1914 and at Fort Riviere in Haiti in 1915, and at his death was the most decorated Marine in American history. He organised and commanded the Gendarmerie d'Haiti and held other administrative posts. After retiring he criticised American foreign policy and military interventions as driven by business interests, wrote War Is a Racket in 1935, and in 1933 told a congressional committee about an alleged plot by industrialists to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt, known as the Business Plot, whose existence the accused denied.