The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR [Paperback]

Jules Archer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2007

Most people will be shocked to learn that in 1933 a cabal of wealthy industrialists—in league with groups like the K.K.K. and the American Liberty League—planned to overthrow the U.S. government in a fascist coup. Their plan was to turn discontented veterans into American “brown shirts,” depose F.D.R., and stop the New Deal. They clandestinely asked Medal of Honor recipient and Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to become the first American Caesar. He, though, was a true patriot and revealed the plot to journalists and to Congress. In a time when a sitting President has invoked national security to circumvent constitutional checks and balances, this episode puts the spotlight on attacks upon our democracy and the individual courage needed to repel them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"General Butler's story was . . . alarmingly true." —Time magazine
 
"James E. Van Zandt, a Republican congressman, corroborated Butler's
story." —Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

About the Author

Jules Archer served for four years during World War II in the Pacific with the Army Air Corps. Born in New York City, he was also a freelance correspondent by order of General MacArthur. He is the author of many books on political events and personalities, including The Plot to Seize the White House; Mao Tse-tung; The Dictators; Hawks, Doves, and the Eagle; The Extremists; and Chou En-lai.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602390363
• ISBN-13: 978-1602390362
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most important books you will ever read!, March 3, 2007

By 

anarchteacher (United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR (Paperback)

Excellent attractive and inexpensively priced paperback edition of the Jules Archer classic. It is terrific to have this wonderful book back in print again!

The book tells the shocking true story of how United States Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler was the savior of our Republic from a fascist plot by Wall Street plutocratic militarists in the early 1930s.

Author Jules Archer is featured in The History Channel documentary, The Plot To Overthrow FDR, a concise summary of this exceptional book. This program is available for viewing at Google Video.

For more on Butler and the attempted 1930's fascist coup d'etat against FDR, see my Amazon.com Listmania! book and video list, Smedley Darlington Butler.

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading for conspiracy and history buffs., March 1, 2007

By 

Bob Fitzsimmons (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR (Paperback)

Some stories are so shocking they seem to be fiction. The amazing part of this true-life history is that the events really happened and that the story has been covered up for sixty years. Great reading for conspiracy and history buffs. Radicals really did try to overthrow FDR!

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A flawed perspective on a forgotten patriot, August 9, 2008

By 

J. Bray (WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR (Paperback)

Smedley D. Butler deserves a heroes place in the annals of history and yet 95% of the populace will give you a quizzical look when asked about him or the 'business plot'.
I eagerly anticipated having a book that was supposed to codify all the facts pertaining to this plot that I could recommend to friends and family.
Alas Mr Archer own opinions and conclusions drawn, dwarfed those of Mr. Butler(RIP). The high points of this book lie in the middle where we learn of his war exploits that shaped his later anti-interventionist stance and towards the end where select pieces from the hearings and Butlers testimony are pieced in sequential order followed by an all too brief somewhat condescending write up of his anti-war activities at the end of his life.

I will briefly detail some of the flaws below
The story is told directly from Butlers POV which one normally wouldn't find problematic except that the author was very sparse on details pertaining to the plot(the leaders and companies) who only received brief mentions while a good chunk of the book focuses on the plotters emissary(as opposed to the hearings and that fact that Butler was proven right yet not a single charge was brought forth!) Gerald Macguire trying to convince butler to head the coup.

The author also liberally threw around terms like conservative/fascist in a related fashion and grouping leftists(communist included) as the good guys in this story. Note Butler never says this as wall street and the bankers hold sway over both political parties but apparently Archer imposed his paradigmic view on the events that transpired. A fully fleshed view would take into account this was a fascist coup for sure but it included members of both parties of the so called opposing view points.

The gold standard received a fair amount of lambasting based on the fact that it was the cover used by the plotters to appeal to anti-FDR sentiment and a cover to cloak their real interests. The issue of gold is treated as a fascist and bourgeois position of great fallacy even though Smedley Butler never criticized the economics of a gold standard(rather he remarked at what did it have to do w/ a veterans bonus bill?) Whether you support it or not the fact that was this should have taken second fiddle to the issue of the plot and its instigators.

It may have been that this information was not available at the time the author wrote the book but I found it interesting that Prescott Bush and one of Hitlers financiers Fritz Thyssen amongst other prominent men connected to the plot were nowhere mentioned.
John Buchanan does a great job of documenting this.

A last point of personal annoyance was that Mr Butlers amazing anti-intervention writings and speeches were dismissed by the author as stubborn minded, he even criticized Butler on his stance of keeping the USA out of WW2 claiming he was bitter which stopped him from seeing the danger of America staying neutral which is absurd and has been rebutted with in books such as 'human smoke' & 'Churchill, hitler, and the unnecessary war' which show through the historical record that butler was right about US involvement in foreign lands and wars as folly.
The author incorrectly labels Butler a pacifist and isolationist as opposed to an anti-interventionist which butler clearly was(read his book 'war is a racket' to hear it straight from the man) and in the derogatory manner one hears the Neo-Cons try to smear ron paul with.

Smedley Butler deserves his story told better, to make up for this books rough edges I would recommend you research Butler and the Business Plot yourself, you can obtain documents on the web about the hearings, top 50 plotters involved at relative little costs.
A great companion to this book is Wall Street and FDR by Antony C. Sutton which fills in the gaps where Jules Archer dismissed claims that FDR would cave in as a puppet and how his administration was filled with members of the elite plotters and FDR himself became a tool of this new order.