Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History [Paperback]

Hans Schmidt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 23, 1998

" Smedley Butler's life and career epitomize the contradictory nature of American military policy through the first part of this century. Butler won renown as a Marine battlefield hero, campaigning in most of America's foreign military expeditions from 1898 to the late 1920s. He became the leading national advocate for paramilitary police reform. Upon his retirement, however, he renounced war and imperialism and devoted his energy and prestige to various dissident and leftist political causes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Butler joined the Marines in 1898 and saw action all over the world, winning two Medals of Honor, but he is remembered not so much for his military exploits as for his apostasy during his latter years. A statement he made in 1935 sums up the drastic turnabout: "I spent 33 years in the Corps, and spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business." He also said he had been a racketeer for capitalism who "helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street." Schmidt, a lecturer in history at the University of Hong Kong, traces Butler's stormy career: his various expeditionary campaigns, his central role in internal Marine Corps politics during the 1920s and his bizarre but effective war on crime and vice in Philadelphia. As pure biography, Marine Maverick is a colorful story about a swashbuckling establishment-shaker. Schmidt's book is particularly valuable, however, for the insights it provides into Yankee imperialism and its racist undertones. Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A sympathetic portrait of a Victorian officer-warrior who lost his way as he advanced in rank and his America and his Marine Corps changed after World War I." -- Journal of American History

"This long-awaited biography is as crisp as a David Brinkley commentary. Fact-packed and exquisitely documented." -- Naval Institute Proceedings

"As pure biography, Maverick Marine is a colorful story about a swashbuckling establishment-shaker. Schmidt's book is particularly valuable, however, for the insights it provides into Yankee imperialism and its racist undertones." -- Publishers Weekly

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (July 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813109574
• ISBN-13: 978-0813109572
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #288,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pros and Cons of Military Use, August 8, 2002

By 

Jeremiah J. Timmins (Laconia, NH USA!) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History (Paperback)

It's somewhat ironic that someone as plain-spoken and hard-headed as Old Gimlet Eye would have a book written about him by an intellectual like Dr. Schmidt, but it says a lot about the relevance of Butler, his life in the Marines and in politics.

The book displays how Butler served as both a Marine in endless campaigns for the United States, and how he later came, not to renounce the military or the Marines, but the use of US Military forces overseas as, what he believed them to be, tools of Big Business, and not serving in either the interest of the United States Constitution or its citizens.

This book lead me to Butler's own small book "War is a Racket," which was highly influential in my own opinions about use of military force outside our country's borders. Butler would never consider himself an intellectual, but he had heaps of common sense - a quality which is sometimes lacking from those with sky-high IQs. Marines are sworn to the duty of protecting the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic, and they take this duty to heart. Once Butler realized that some of his fighting may not have served this interest, he became a very politically charged and controversial figure and speaker. How the hell could the former Commandant of the United States Marine Corps declare himself against war? Well, he didn't go against war, but advocated the prudent use of our military strength in the defense of the homeland. Sometimes he went a little far in supporting his points, but his intentions - to look out for both our country and those who serve it - are admirable traits in any career politician or general (there's little difference between the two once someone picks up that first star).

The other things you'll pick up from this book are that Butler was one tough son-of-a-gun. He's one of the most fearless fighting men this country has ever had. I hope they kept some DNA from this guy so we can clone him enough times to fill the manpower requirements of at least one Marine Expeditionary Unit.

I get the feeling that the author admired Butler's political career more than his military one. But, he successfully shows how Butler's intellect benefits from civilian life. In Butler's own book he said that, as a military man, he didn't have the capacity to question the ethics or motivations of his missions overseas. This is true, as the military's communal, self-sufficient environment isn't good for expanding one's intellectual sphere. Anyway, this is a good book about an American legend.

-- JJ Timmins

107 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Be Careful; There is More to "Old Gimlet Eye", July 1, 2000

By 

Capt Keith Kopets, USMC - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History (Paperback)

Most Marines know that Major General Smedley Darlington Butler was the only officer in the Corps to win two Medals of Honor. Most non-Marines, like Dr. Hans Schmidt, identify Butler with his 1935 diatribe of Wall Street and Big Business:

"I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long.... Looking back on it, I feel I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. We Marines operated on three CONTINENTS" [p. 231].

Dr. Schmidt is a fan of Butler--the "patriotic warrior hero whose courage, physical command presence, and vernacular coarseness epitomized the popular ideal of a soldier's general" (p. 1). This is easily understandable; Butler's distinguished combat record and blunt, extroverted style of leadership endeared him to the mass media and earned him a legion of followers. Schmidt became a Butler disciple after writing the UNITED STATES OCCUPATION OF HAITI, 1915-1934 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1971).

MAVERICK MARINE uses sixteen chapters to interweave two subjects: (1) The life and times of Smedley Butler and (2) The Marine Corps's role as the strong arm of American foreign policy in the early twentieth century. Schmidt's coverage of the former is nonpareil; his treatment of the latter, however, does not hold up as well under scrutiny.

Butler's career in the Marine Corps began in 1898 at age sixteen. During the war with Spain, Second Lieutenant Butler deployed with the 1st Marine Battalion to the Caribbean. There, he found his niche in life fighting along side the men of the "Old Corps"; after the war, Butler opted to align himself with the "uneducated, roughneck tendencies within the marines" (p. 10) rather than return to civilian life and school.

During the next thirty years, Butler battled bandits and insurrectionists around the globe in a series of armed interventions. He served under Major Littleton W. T. "Tony" Waller during the Philippine Insurrection of 1899 and came to idolize the racist, bombastic, hard-nosed campaigner--calling Waller "the greatest soldier" he ever knew (p. 12). Waller, incidentally, earned the nickname "Butcher of Samar" for his exploits in the Philippines. Years later, in 1910 and 1914, Waller was in line for the commandancy; and Butler, of course, was one of his most vociferous supporters. Unfortunately, Waller's alleged atrocities in the Philippines tarnished his reputation; both times, he failed to rise to Corps's top position. Both times, Butler grew incensed at the "highbrow professionalism and Annapolis elitism" he perceived to be responsible for Waller's slighting (p. 121).

In 1900, Smedley marched on Tientsin and Peking to relieve the Legation Quarter during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. After distinguishing himself in China (and being wounded), Butler transferred to Panama to command one of the companies in the newly formed Advance Base Force battalion. Butler won both his Medals of Honor serving in subsequent expeditions to Nicaragua (1910-1912), Veracruz (1914), and Haiti (1915-1917). It was during Nicaragua, Schmidt asserts, that Butler "clearly established his preeminence in the tactics of colonial warfare--bold imperious leadership of small units so as to bluff the natives into submission, thereby avoiding the escalating costs, perils, and embitterments attendant to massive violence" (p. 47).

Towards the end of his Marine career, Butler led a brigade to Shanghai in response to the Nanking Incident of March 1927. His most successful and least controversial mission, Butler returned from China in 1929 to his formerly held position as commander of Quantico. Now one of the ranking generals in the Corps, he was in line for the commandancy--but it was not to be. After Commandant Wendell C. Neville died in office, the low-key Ben Fuller ascended to the Corps's top post over Butler. In 1931, Butler retired from the Corps after an off-color anecdote about Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini landed him a court-martial (later reduced to a reprimand; see pp. 208-212).

Butler made one last appearance in Marine Corps circles four years after retirement. In 1935, he contested General John Russell's confirmation as Commandant. Russell stood for everything Butler opposed: He was an intellectual, graduating the Naval Academy and War College; he embraced reform; and he saw little combat during his career, serving a long stint in Haiti--where, while on a diplomatic mission for the State Department, he befriended Franklin D. Roosevelt. Schmidt clearly sides with Butler by calling the occasion "a last hurrah for warrior standards that were diminishing in importance at marine headquarters and as a factor in congressional politics" (p. 214). Yet, Russell was able to reform officer promotions, create the Fleet Marine Force (still the backbone of the operating forces today), and nurture the development of amphibious doctrine--the mission that would elevate the Marine Corps to elite status in the Pacific during World War II. This begs the question: If Butler had his way, would the Marines ever have grown from international policemen to the six-division amphibious assault force of the Pacific during the 1940s? Sadly, this question is beyond Schmidt's grasp. Simply put, Butler was an anachronism.

In sum, approach this book with caution. As simply a chronicle of Butler's life, Schmidt succeeds. However, MAVERICK MARINE has limited utility as an operational history of the "Colonial Infantry" Marine Corps. Although amply footnoted and richly illustrated, MAVERICK MARINE lacks depth and perspective. For example, there are no maps. How can you write of campaigns in half a dozen countries without one map? Likewise, there is a difference between a marine and a Marine; pedantic, to be sure, but irritating for the educated reader. Although I enjoyed the book and highly recommend it, it is not the final word on Smedley Butler. As a counterbalance to MAVERICK MARINE, I recommend reading Bartlett's "Old Gimlet Eye." The truth lies somewhere in between.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smedley Butler - All American, December 24, 2002

By 

jerome d gorman (richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History (Paperback)

This book is about an American patriot and career Marine Corps officer who had the ability to see through the motivation of many of the U.S. military adventures in which he played a leading role. It would be interesting if he were still living and able to share his insights and convictions about our current military entanglements beyond our nation's borders. His views are reminiscent of the warnings our first President, George Washington, gave in his Farewell Address.