The start of this story never gets any less surprising no matter how many times it resurfaces. It's sometimes called the business plot, but that's too

forgettable a name. The unforgettable name associated with it is the hero of the

business plot, a man named Smedley Darlington Butler.

Take pleasure in introducing to you, Major General

Spedley Butler, retired of the U.S. Marine Corps.

In the early 20th century,

Smedley Butler was not just a great name. He was a household name. He was a Marine general.

He was the most decorated marine in US history at the time.

And in the mid 1930s, Smedley Butler went public with this shocking claim that a shadowy

cabal of rich and powerful business interests had tried to recruit him to lead a coup, a fascist coup, against President Franklin D Roosevelt.

Appeared before the Congressional Committee, the highest representation of the American people under subpoena to tell what I knew of activities

which I believe might lead to an attempt to set up a fascist dictatorship.

The plan is outlying to me was to form an organization of veterans to use as a

bluff or as a club at least to intimidate the government and break down our

democratic institution. The upshot of the whole thing was the real smedly butler.

You might have seen the movie Amsterdam that came out last year.

The plot of that movie, or at least part of the plot, was sort of loosely based on this story and it was Robert DeNiro who played

the part of the Smedly Butler character.

I've been offered money to become the self-appointed leader of the veterans veterans like you.

This story, the Smedley Butler business plot story, it does get sort of re-remembered every few years and like I said every time it

resurfaces it's still surprising it's still unnerving and after the January 6th

attack on the US capital, when we all went scrambling for things that might help us understand what had just happened,

...