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The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right

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The Plots Against the President, Sally Denton

Sally Denton is an investigative journalist and award-winning author who is a Guggenheim fellow and a public policy scholar. The 224 pages are divided into 38 chapters. There are `Notes'; a `Bibliography' of books, magazines, journals, and newspapers; and an `Index'. The `Prologue' tells how some wanted a dictatorship for America, but this was rejected by Franklin Delano Roosevelt since it would harm the Constitution. FDR promised to bring relief to American and punish the perpetrators of this catastrophe (p.2). Conspiracy is the normal method of operation in business and politics, they don't publicize their plans for their rivals and enemies. The `Acknowledgments' says these two plots in this book were avoided (or censored) by most scholars and journalists. [Both are corporate employees who writings are censored.] Many of the files and documents were destroyed or are missing (p.222). The support from the Woodrow Wilson Center made this book possible. Denton thanks all those who helped.

This book explains why FDR was regarded as a savior to most people. Chapter 1 has a brief history of Franklin and Eleanor. Louis McHenry Howe was a newspaper reporter who became an advisor to FDR (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 describes life in the 1930s - the worst economic depression in the 20th century. You can read about Hoover's failings (pp.16-17). FDR was like a savior (p.20). Hoover vetoed the Soldier's Bonus (Chapter 4). Millions of people had been swindled by financial frauds (p.23). [Sound familiar?] Emigrating Americans exceeded immigrating foreigners (p.24)! Hoover ordered an army attack on the unemployed staying in Anacostia (Chapter 6). This was another Hoover blunder (p.36) that destroyed his credibility (Chapter 7). FDR won by a large margin.

FDR's great talent was to use people who knew more about a subject than he did (Chapter 8). He picked academics (the "Brain Trust") rather than businessmen and politicians who created the mess. The Great War was followed by the Great Depression (p.48). Loans to the Allies could not be repaid. Chapter 10 tells of the disastrous conditions. There was sympathy for Fascism and Mussolini. Chapter 11 tells of the other political figures in that ear who appealed to populists (p.58). Miami prepared a rally for FDR (Chapter 13). The assassination attempt failed but others were wounded (Chapter 14). Zangara was a "lone gunman" (p.87). [If other countries coudn't repay their war debts how could "tons of gold flee the country" (p.95)?] Reckless speculation by banks caused their downfall (p.103). Chapter 20 tells about the first trial of Zangara, the second trial led to a death sentence. Cermak, another immigrant, could have lived if the bullet was removed. FDR was "the greatest President of the twentieth century" (p.114).

There were other proposals to nationalize the banking system (p.118). Federal Reserve banknotes would replace gold. FDR set journalistic precedents (p.119). The Pecora Committee investigated investment bankers and insurance companies (p.130). Chapter 26 lists FDR's accomplishments. Purchasing power increased, homes were saved, bank deposits were restored, millions went back to work, and recovery was proceeding (p.155). The upper class hated FDR (p.158), and Eleanor (Chapter 29). Chapter 31 tells about the fascist groups in American seeking to take over the government. Powerful businessmen plotted a coup d'état against FDR (p.175). Chapter 32 and 33 tell about Major General Smedley D. Butler. Butler was offered a bribe to call for the gold standard (Chapter 34). Next he was asked to organize a peaceful coup d'état by agents of Wall Street (Chapter 35). A reporter investigated (Chapter 36), Butler told J. Edgar Hoover (p.200).

The House Committee on Un-American Activities listened to Butler's testimony in secret (Chapter 37). It was covered up, "many newspapers suppressed the story" (p.207). MacGuire died at 37 and could not testify (p.209). Historians neglected this plot (p.211). Butler's charges effectively neutralized the Liberty League's anti-Roosevelt policies (p.212). Was the plot suppressed because it involved some of FDR's own advisors (p.214)? Did major newspapers distort and cover up this news due to commercial interests (p.215)? FDR's "Second Hundred Days" passed the Securities Exchange Act to prohibit swindling consumers (pp.215-216). War profiteers were investigated by the Nye Committee (p.216). Payoffs to public officials was too common to prosecute. The IRS and Justice Department investigated Wall Street people (p.217). FDR couldn't understand why his saving of the system brought on such hatred (p.217). [Envy and jealousy of others is part of human nature.] The Democratic land-slide victory in the midterm elections was the answer to popular appreciation of FDR's policies.

New York city was the first capital of America. Bankers there asked George Washington to create a monarchy and declare himself king. Washington refused. To prevent this from happening again the capital was moved to a new location between Virginia and Maryland. This fact is not mentioned in this book. The `Epilogue' tells of another plot that involved General Smedley D. Butler (who reported it to J. Edgar Hoover). The 1936 election gave FDR a mandate and a New Deal for America. In 2009 there was talk about another military coup by the same reactionary forces (`Newsmax').

I could not put this book down because it is filled with information, written in wonderful prose and a lot of short chapters, that I simply never knew. I think I have probably more knowledge about American history than the average adult in this country, but I certainly did not know about these plots that occurred during the FDR era.
I live in Miami Beach in a house built in the early 1930s--a really well built house built at a time when the economy was at its worst, when foreclosures were in the hundreds of thousands--so when I got to "Magic City" (Miami), I found myself fascinated because I had no idea that on his way back from a fishing trip in the Caribbean in February 1933, shortly before his March 3rd inauguration, an Italian-American actually attempted to kill FDR and were it not for a woman who was next to the would-be assassin who raised her arm, pushing his up, quite possibly the newly elected president would have been shot. And for the next few chapters the reader is provided with wonderful information about the advent of a right-wing movement.
Of course as I read this book, I could not help thinking about the parallels with the Great Recession that we are in today. When I read, for example, that FDR would "steer clear of businessmen and politicans" when forming his "Brain Trust," his closest advisers, I wrote this beside it: which Obama didn't do.
And as I read the book--and I know this shouldn't be a place for political comments but...--I found myself thinking about the irony of President Obama liking himself to FDR back when he was first elected, yet he never took the bold actions Mr. Roosevelt took beginning the very day he was sworn into office.
There is much about the two Hoovers, Herbert who was very uncooperative after being defeated in a landslide and then the horrific J. Edgar one, the paranoid one, and how he was able to mastermind himself into the position he held for decades as the head of the FBI.
Congress was not very cooperative. Sound familiar?
The Supreme Court was not very cooperative. Sound familiar?
This is a must-read book.

The following is an excerpt from the last page of THE PLOTS AGAINST THE PRESIDENT: "There is not much difference between the forces aligned against President Franklin Roosevelt and those against President Barack Obama..." --- Really?

The book details such anti-Roosevelt forces as right-wing Wall Street bankers and wealthy industrialists who actively plot to overthrow Roosevelt's government; the anarchist would-be presidential assassin Zangara who shot at Roosevelt; influential demagogues like Huey Long and Father Couglin; marching "Colored Shirt" militia Fascist groups; and powerful media moguls like the Hearst and McCormick. The books final chapter, a summary comparison, creates a tidy coupling of the administrations of these two leaders. Of course, there is some commonality between Roosevelt and Obama both playing the politics of rich versus poor, but many politicians have played this card. President Obama is not President Roosevelt. Today is not 1935. No one is plotting a coup against him. Unlike Roosevelt, Truman, JFK, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, he has not been the target of an assassination attempt. President Obama has actually supported those marching for change; yet he appears to also have the financial backing of the "one-per centers" hated by those same people occupying the streets. He has not attacked the Wall Street bankers; they are still cozy in the Hamptons. Rush Limbaugh is not a modern-day Father Coughlin. There are no populist demagogues rising to power. Nor is there an active looming Communist threat to the Capitalist system, as was present the 1935. The knee-jerk "Red" versus "Blue" tipping point of today's political conversation, and the "terrorism boogeyman" threats of today can't be compared to the political landscape of the Thirties; nor can the Axis powers be compared to the "Axis of Evil". Today's Fox or CNN "newsreel" is a cartoon compared to those of 1932 to 1945.

If Roosevelt were alive today, he might say: "The only thing we have to fear...are the fabricators of fear...and the purveyors of polarity." He might add: "and the political eunuchs, who at this moment,occupy the seats of power in Washington D.C."

It's painful to read and enjoy a factual history book for two hundred seventeen pages, and then have it all flushed down the drain in four final pages of "red vs. blue" cockfighting.

Other useful reading: The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR
The Five Weeks of Giuseppe Zangara: The Man Who Tried to Kill FDR