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The Life of Smedley Butler, 1881 - 1940

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The Life of Smedley Butler, 1881 - 1940 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles A Soldier at Heart: The Life of Smedley Butler, 1881 - 1940 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Eric Dennis Myers 2013 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION A Soldier at Heart: The Life of Smedley Butler, 1881 - 1940 by Eric Dennis Myers Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Joan Waugh, Chair The dissertation is a historical biography of Smedley Darlington Butler (1881-1940), a decorated soldier and critic of war profiteering during the 1930s. A two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner and son of a powerful congressman, Butler was one of the most prominent military figures of his era. He witnessed firsthand the American expansionism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, participating in all of the major conflicts and most of the minor ones. Following his retirement in 1931, Butler became an outspoken critic of American intervention, arguing in speeches and writings against war profiteering and the injustices of expansionism. His critiques represented a wide swath of public opinion at the time – the majority of Americans supported anti-interventionist policies through 1939. Yet unlike other members of the movement, Butler based his theories not on abstract principles, but on experiences culled from decades of soldiering: the terrors and wasted resources of the battlefield, ! ""! ! the use of the American military to bolster corrupt foreign governments, and the influence of powerful, domestic moneyed interests. Butler’s story is reminiscent of a comment Mark Twain once made about America: “This nation is like all the others that have been spewed upon the earth – ready to shout for any cause that will tickle its vanity or fill its pocket.” That was Smedley Butler in his early years – a soldier shouting for the “cause.” Later, he would decide to expose those whose pockets he had helped to fill. This ideological shift – from imperialism to isolationism – rippled through homes across the country in the interwar period as it did in Butler’s mind. In this dissertation, I will examine this ideological movement through the study of one of its most prominent leaders. ! """! ! The dissertation of Eric Dennis Myers is approved. Mary N. Hart Janice L. Reiff Joan Waugh, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 ! "#! ! TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements vi Vita viii Introduction 1 Chapter One: The Fighting Quaker 14 1881 – 1915 Chapter Two: The Desk Soldier 59 1916 – 1929 Chapter Three: Transitions 107 1928 – 1931 Chapter Four: Politics and Plots 138 An Election and a Conspiracy Chapter Five: Just Talk 170 Public Speaking and the Veterans’ Movement Chapter Six: Radio Butler 222 Butler, Isolationism, and the Pep Boys Speeches Epilogue 258 Bibliography 268 ! #! ! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Though this brief section is inadequate to express the immense gratitude I have for those teachers, colleagues, family, and friends who aided my journey through graduate school, I would still like to thank a few individuals who were instrumental in helping me to achieve my degree. I must first recognize my advisor, Joan Waugh. Her guidance and encouragement sparked new and fruitful directions in my work, and her critical and constructive feedback to the dissertation drafts raised the level of my scholarship. As an educator and mentor, there is none better. Professor Janice Reiff offered indispensible assistance and direction from my first day of graduate school to the last, for which I am extremely grateful. The generosity of Muriel McClendon was appreciated more than she will ever know. I would also like to thank Dr. Kathy O’Byrne, Director of UCLA’s Center for Community Learning for having the confidence in my abilities to hire me year after year, an experience that enabled me to grow as an educator and helped to fund the bulk of my education. A special acknowledgement goes to the staff at the Archives and Special Collections in the Alfred M. Grey Research Center at Quantico, especially Greg Cina, Jim Ginther, and Michael Miller. During my research trips to Quantico, the team worked to fulfill all of my requests and patiently answered even the most trivial of questions. Without the intellectual and emotional support of fellow graduate students Linus Kafka, Melanie Arias, Matt Hill, Deborah Bauer, Howard Padwa, Alexandra Hui, Lauren Acker, ! #"! ! Brittany Adams, Stephanie Amerian, Matthew Crow, and Erik Greenberg, I could have hardly made it through the rigors of the program. Thank you, scholars. Lastly, I am regularly humbled by the wealth of encouragement from my outstanding group of family and friends. Dr. Ronald Yee has been a motivator and true friend for more years than I can remember. My parents, Kathleen and Dennis, have provided unwavering love and support that has sustained me through graduate school and life. And those close to me know that I could not have completed the dissertation – or much of anything else – without my wife, Laura. The dissertation is dedicated to her. ! #""! ! VITA 2001 B. A., History/Sociology University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California 2006-2008 Teaching Fellow Department of History University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California 2007 M.A., History University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California 2008-2009 Graduate Student Researcher UCLA Center for Community Learning University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California 2009-2012 Teaching Fellow Department of History University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California AWARDS 2008 Graduate Summer Research Mentorship ! #"""! ! INTRODUCTION “…it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated (friend or foe), that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.” -William Tecumseh Sherman1 The Marine Corps Base at Quantico sits on 100 square miles of wooded forest and swampy wetlands along the Potomac River in northeastern Virginia. It is home to some 12,000 marines2 and civilian personnel, the FBI Academy, the Marine Corps University, and tucked behind the main road, an unassuming football field called Butler Stadium. A casual jogger circling the field would hardly be able to guess that the 10,000-seat arena was dug out of the hillside entirely by hand, the arduous labor of thousands of marines. Nor that the tons of concrete reinforced by rails were donated by the Potomac and Fredericksburg Railroad so that the total cost of the project could come in at under $5,000. Butler Stadium today assists in maintaining the fitness of marines at Quantico, but mostly forgotten are the efforts of Butler toward the stadium’s conception and his dedication to complete the project at a fraction of its anticipated cost, one of his numerous striking achievements on behalf of the base. And yet, Butler Stadium is the only monument on base dedicated to Smedley Butler – a man with one of the most storied careers in the Marine Corps.3 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 William Tecumseh Sherman, May, 1865, quoted from B.H. Liddell Hart, Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American (Boston: Dodd Mead, 1929), 402. 2 Throughout the dissertation “Marines” is capitalized when referring to the “Marine Corps.” When used in reference to the soldiers themselves, “marines” appears in lowercase. 3 On the construction of Butler Stadium see: “Quantico’s $650,000 Memorial Stadium Nearing Completion at Cost of Only $5,000,” Washington Post, January 21, 1923; “Marines’ New Stadium is Nearly ! $! ! A descendant of a long line of successful Pennsylvania Quakers and the son of a well-known Pennsylvania congressman, Smedley4 was born into privilege. Combining his familial advantages with an intense work ethic and episodes of bravery, Butler excelled in the Marine Corps. But what set Butler apart from other well-connected political elites was his empathy toward the common soldier, the common veteran, and eventually, the common man. In 1931, Major General Butler retired from the Marine Corps with the highest achievable rank and as one of the Corps’ most famous members. He had appeared on the cover of Time magazine in June of 1927. Humorist Will Rogers mentioned him in his columns. And writer and radio personality Lowell Thomas lobbied Butler for the privilege of writing his biography.5 Following his retirement, Butler embarked on a career as a public speaker, often addressing crowds numbering in the thousands and holding court through a regular radio address for six months in 1935 that was broadcast across the East Coast.6 In 1935, famed Louisiana politician Huey Long proclaimed in his book My First Days in the White House, that if he were elected President he would !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Completed,” New York Times, August 13, 1922. The modern day description stems from the author’s own observations at Quantico in the spring and summer of 2010. 4 Throughout the dissertation Smedley Butler is referred to in a variety of ways, including “Butler,” “Smedley,” “General Butler,” etc. 5 “Cover,” Time, June 20, 1927, (Volume IX, Number 25); For examples of Rogers’ admiration for Butler, see “Will Rogers Remarks,” Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1927; “Will Rogers Remarks,” Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1929; “Will Rogers Remarks,” Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1931; Lowell Thomas, Old Gimlet Eye: The Adventures of Smedley D. Butler (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1933). 6 At the national encampment for the Veterans of Foreign War in 1933, Butler spoke in front of a crowd of some 10,000, according to reports. See Chicago Daily Tribune, August 28, 1933. Later that year, Butler shared the stage with James Van Zandt and Huey Long on a national speaking tour, prior to which, according to one historian, Butler was extremely popular and “commanded huge veteran audiences everywhere he spoke.” See Stephen R. Ortiz, Beyond the Bonus March: How Veteran Politics Shaped the New Deal Era (New York: New York University Press, 2010), 94.
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