S4 Ep44: That Time Democracy Almost Collapsed: The Forgotten History of Smedley Butler and the Plot to Overthrow FDR

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

True Crime, Society & Culture, Science

4.1 • 10K Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 1930s some shadowy figures approached a decorated and beloved Marine with a plot to overthrow the government and replace FDR with someone much more friendly to the wealthy. If only they hadn't chosen Smedley Butler to do their bidding we might be living in a very different world today.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	How far would you go to stand up for what's right? Would you risk your career, your reputation, your life?
0:15.4	Welcome to strange and unexplained with me, Daisy Egan. I'm not a big pro-military kind of person.
0:22.2	I know there are myriad reasons people join,
0:24.8	but if the reasoning is the nebulous idea of patriotism,
0:28.5	we're probably not going to be on the same page.
0:31.8	To be clear, that doesn't mean I don't support the troops.
0:34.8	I just prefer not to support the system the troops are trooping for, if you know what I mean.
0:41.7	But I am really into redemption arcs.
0:44.7	If someone joined the military thinking they would be upholding freedom,
0:48.2	but then learned their role was actually to uphold an economic system that favored the rich,
0:53.4	and then they did whatever they could to undo the damage they'd caused,
0:57.6	well, I might just offer to buy that person a drink.
1:28.2	I'd make just offer to like that. He was a real hero, a Marine Major General and a two-time Medal of Honor winner,
1:34.3	and in the 1930s he probably thwarted a White House coup that could have undermined democracy
1:40.1	and replaced it with a fascist military for the good of the millionaires.
1:45.8	I know what you're thinking.
1:51.2	Daisy's trying to draw some wicked political point to score a small victory on the people now in charge.
1:52.3	I am not.
1:58.4	I am just going to explain how something really shocking happened in the early 1930s.
2:00.9	Something that nobody told me about and something for which nobody got punished.
2:03.9	Something that had treason and banana republic
2:06.3	written all over it.
	...

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