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War is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier

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EDITED from 17 Aug 03 to add book links.

This book is a real gem, a classic, that should be in any library desiring to focus on national security. It is a very readable collection of short essays, ending with a concise collection of photographs that show the horror of war--on one page in particular, a pile of artillery shells labeled "Cause" and below is a photo of a massive pile of bodies, labeled "Effect."

Of particular interest to anyone concerned about the current national security situation, both its expensive mis-adventures abroad and its intrusive violation of many Constitutional rights at home, is the author's history, not only as a the most decorated Marine at the time, with campaign experience all over the world, but as a spokesperson, in retirement, for placing constitutional American principles over imperialist American practice.

The following quotations from the book are intended to summarize it:

"I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil intersts in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested." [p. 10]

"War is a racket. ...It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." [p. 23]

"The general public shoulders the bill [for war]. This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations." [p. 24]

General Butler is especially trenchant when he looks at post-war casualties. He writes with great emotion about the thousands of tramautized soldiers, many of who lose their minds and are penned like animals until they die, and he notes that in his time, returning veterans are three times more likely to die prematurely than those who stayed home.

This decorated Marine, who understands and documents in detail the exorbitant profits that a select few insiders (hence the term "racket") make from war, proposes three specific anti-war measures:

1) Take the profit out of war. Nationalize and mobilize the industrial sector, and pay every manager no more than each soldier earns.

2) Vote for war or no war on the basis of a limited plebisite in which only those being asked to bear arms and die for their country are permitted to vote.

3) Limit US military forces, by Constitutional amendment, to home defense purposes only.

There is a great deal of wisdom and practical experience in this small book--Smedley Butler is to war profiteering what S.L.A. Marshall is to "the soldier's load." While a globalized world and the complex integration of both national and non-national interests do seem to require a global national security strategy and a means of exerting global influence, I am convinced that he is correct about the fundamentals: we must take the profit out of war, and restore the voice of the people in the matter of making war.

The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
Why We Fight
Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin
Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth'
Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
The Lessons of History
The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past

Dear readers, I first heard of Major General Smedley Butler when I joined the Marines twelve years ago. Hearing of his exploits while in Boot Camp, us recruits all wished we had as much guts as this Demi-God.

Imagine my suprise now, after having learned that our brave and tough idol had confessed to being the best "enforcer" for big business there ever was! He then became a whistle blower of the highest order. Brave and honest men and women who attain some kind of fame on the world stage do not get to live too long in this world. Their outspokeness is extinguished as soon as people start listening. In General Butler's case there was a glitch in the system. He rose to the heights in rank because of his courage, heart, and tenacity during times of WAR. They had no choice but to elevate him. He earned his unobstructed view of how the world works with blood, sweat, and tears. When he realized that he was just being used... All hell broke loose. His passionate essay in this book should be read by everyone living in this great country. He tells it the way it was and the way it still is.

It's going to be a while before someone else from so high-up steps "out of line" and talks. Can you imagine this happening nowadays? Not gonna happen. It seems that Generals are now chosen for political reasons.

So read this book about the brave General who showed even more courage as a Civilian.

"War is a Racket" is marine general, Smedley Butler's classic treatise on why wars are conducted, who profits from them, and who pays the price. Few people are as qualified as General Butler to advance the argument encapsulated in his book's sensational title. When "War is a Racket" was first published in 1935, Butler was the most decorated American soldier of his time. He had lead several successful military operations in the Caribbean and in Central America, as well as in Europe during the First World War. Despite his success and his heroic status, however, Butler came away from these experiences with a deeply troubled view of both the purpose and the results of warfare.

Butler's central thesis is that regardless of the popular rhetoric that often accompanies warfare, it is waged almost exclusively for profit. He advances this argument in three decisive examples.

EXAMPLE 1: CORPORATE MILITARY PROFITS RESULTING FORM WAR
In an early version of "follow the money", Butler provides pre- and post-World War I data on some of America's leading corporations to demonstrate the surge in profits that they experienced from the war, often totaling several hundred percent. While some companies, such as Dupont, arguably produced goods that contributed directly to America's military victory in 1918, others such as saddle manufacturers did not. Even when these companies failed to contribute directly to the war effort, they still managed to lobby the government to retrain or expand their contracts. Its as though powerful, well connected oil services company today were to contract with the government to supply oil to the military during a foreign campaign and then deliberately overcharge it.

EXAMPLE 2: INVESTING IN OTHER NATIONS' WARS
Butler argues that the United States practically doomed itself to entering the First World War the moment it began lending money and material to the allies. Once the allies were faced with certain defeat, argues Butler, they approached American government and business officials and flatly told them that unless they were victorious they would not be able to repay their staggering debt. In the event that Germany and the axis powers won the war, they would have no motivation to assume and repay the allied debt to the United States. America entered the First World War, according to Butler, in order to guarantee the repayment of its massive military loans to the allies. No allied victory meant no repayment, which meant no profit. Thousands of American soldiers were killed or maimed, argues Butler, to protect corporate profits.

EXAMPLE 3: THE MILITARY AS A COROPORATE THUG
Based on his own service experience in Central America and the Caribbean Butler argues that most American military interventions in small countries were done in order to "clear the way" for American corporations to set up shop and commence pillaging. It would be as if the United States were to occupy an oil-rich nation and then start doling out "rebuilding" contracts to some of its largest and best-connected corporations.

WHO PAYS FOR WAR
Having focused on who profits from war, Butler then examines who pays the price. The answer, unsurprisingly enough is the average taxpayer and the young people who are either slaughtered in wartime or who return home physically and psychologically damaged. Sadly, Butler points out, once these young people are no longer useful they are ignored by their own government and are left to suffer without assistance. It's as though a president were to employ a lot of rhetoric about supporting our troops while using them to occupy and oil-rich nation, but were to secretly slash their hazardous duty pay and veterans benefits.

THE SOLUTION: END WAR PROFITEERING
Butler's solution to preventing the carnage and social injustices of war is to eliminate business leaders' ability to make a profit from war or to avoid serving in it themselves. He also argues that those who put their lives at risk should have a say in whether or not to wage war. This may sound like a lot of idealistic, socialist nonsense, but thing about it. Would the United States have invaded an oil-rich nation if its unelected president had been forced to serve in the front lines as part of the process? Would business interests have supported the war if they never stood to profit from it? Probably not.

"War is a Racket" also contains other interesting factoids including General Butler's successful prevention of a right-wing coup against President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Unfortunately, no one of General Butler's caliber was able to prevent a similar coup from taking place in 2000.

General Butler also makes a persuasive case for the United States to remain isolationist and to avoid involving itself in the coming European war (This book was published shortly before World War II.). Using his considerable grasp of military logistics, Butler counters many of the prevailing arguments of his day that Hitler posed a direct military threat to the United States. Unfortunately, no one of General Butler's caliber was available to counter a similar argument that right wing policy makers advanced about a tiny oil-rich nation in the Middle East posing a direct military threat to the United States.

To anyone who doubts the veracity or efficacy of this book, I have a humble but useful suggestion. Ask yourself who makes money off of war. Then ask yourself if they ever make the physical, mental, or fiscal sacrifices for war. Finally ask yourself who ultimately makes the sacrifices and pays the prices. Most people who favor war either profit from it, or are seduced by the idea of it. General Butler's book is a concise, and brilliantly argued treatise on the reality of war. Of course most people prefer a beautiful idea to harsh reality, and that is why propagandists and politicians are so successful.

Brigadier General Smedley Darlington Butler is not a very familiar name when it comes to military lore in America. Butler was a two-time winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor. As a solider he oversaw American campaigns in China, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti. After his retirement from military service he brought down a planned corporate coup that threatened to seize control of the White House. He supported World War I Bonus Marchers who rallied in DC looking for their promised "War Bonus." He treated all his men fairly and honestly and was respected for it. Most importantly, he realized that in his role as a military leader he was a "high-class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short...a racketeer for Capitalism." This book was his effort to expose everything that he knew about the inner workings of the American War Machine.

The first sentences of Butler's book, written in 1935 and mainly referring to World War I remain true today, "War is a racket. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious." Butler then rips into war profiteers who never shouldered a rifle yet made millions in blood money. Throughout his writing Butler posits that the single focus of war is to make money for the few by trading in the blood of the many. To know that in 2004 these words accurately and eerily describe the majority of the men and women now in control of the United States of America is shameful and disgraceful.

In Chapter Two "Who Makes the Profits" Butler analyzes who made money during the Wars he was involved with. He analyzes how they made their money and how much they made. All one has to do is change some of the industries, corporate names, increase the profits exponentially and you will have a blueprint for the wars of today launched by the US. Again, this shows that when it comes to war, the technology may change through the years, but the end result is always the same, many die and a few make more money.

Interestingly, Butler points out that it was not always big business that made money from war, up until the Spanish American War soldiers also made a profit above and beyond their military salary. Soldiers were paid enlistment bonuses, and they were paid when enemies were captured. The government then discovered they could substitute medals and ribbons for dollars and did so. Thanks to that logic, borrowed from Napoleon, soldiers pay the bill of war with their lives, limbs, minds and souls and are rewarded with worthless tin and ribbon.

Butler offers simple solutions to end the racket of war. First, take the profit out of war. Pay everyone that works in the war industry the same wage that a solider would make in the trenches risking his life. This is a simple and effective plan. Pay the CEO of United States Steel (or Halliburton today) the same as the grunt in the trenches and see how many wars are launched. Another solution; vote on the war. However, the vote would be restricted to those who will be called upon to fight and serve, not those in Congress or the President. Butler's final suggestion, limit the military to homeland defense only; secure these shores, do not patrol the shores and lands of others that are not legitamely threatening us. In other words promote isolationism. As Butler states, "there are only two reasons why you should ever be asked to give your youngsters. One is defense of our homes. The other is the defense of our Bill of Rights and particularly the right to worship God as we see fit." There is no mention about sacrificing the young in search of phantom weapons on foreign shores or to payback on a threat to your Daddy.

Butler shows very clearly that isolationism is the best defense for our country and also the least profitable for big business. In his essay "common Sense Neutrality," Butler details what it would take to attack the shores of the US with success. If anyone thinks that a prolonged ground attack of the US is feasible today they should read the list of items an attack of this type would require. Simply put, it ain't gonna happen.

If the current leadership of this country had read this book and taken Butler's suggestion of a Peace Amendment into account we may not have had to endure the attacks of 9/11. The focus on this Amendment, which could easily be adopted, is a true defense of our borders that not even a rat could sneak through.

The final section of the book is a collection of war atrocity photos from the classic book "The Horror of It" that any war supporter should be forced to view in the company of those that have lost a loved one for "democracies sake."

Make no mistake, Butler was not the Michael Moore of his time; Butler did not point out problems with a smarmy smile on his face while raking in millions of dollars. Butler saw problems with his country; he was critical of issues that affected the working class and he offered solutions to these problems. There is no cuteness in his words, they are hard, honest and thought provoking. And through it all he loved his country; however he had no love for those that ran it and manipulated the masses for their profit.

"This was the war to make the world safe for Democracy" was the cry the public heard in Butler's day, just as we hear today. Butler did not believe that statement and said, "no one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason" for war. Today, Butler would be called un-American due to his critical words. In reality he was the ultimate patriot, never forgetting that the US was to be run by the people, not by big business. Sadly, 70 years after Butler wrote these essays things remain the same.

This is a rare book that stands the test of time and could help us today. If we heed Butler's words and put his ideas in place perhaps we can avoid further useless war.

In very terse language, General Smedley Butler tells it like it is about war in this short book. His ideas of how war is so economically profitable to some is valid in our own times as well. He calls it no less than 'blood profit', money accumulated by big business by promoting death and destruction.

The General found all this out by direct experience. After a career in the Marines that was spent fighting in numerous wars, the truth that he has discovered, that 'War Is A Racket', should be written in stone for all, especially our leaders, to see.

A classic in the literature about war that should be more widely known.

Then it's good enough for me. Hearing his name throughout basic training, stomping through his base in Okinawa, I never even heard about his greatest victory until I was in college a good three years after leaving the Corps and when I learned about this victory, I knew right then and there that I was ignorant toward American History. We all know his greatest victory was stopping the coup against FDR, I am no FDR fan but I am definitely not a fan of individuals attempting to rip this Country apart.

Smedley Butler exposes the war profiteers from WWI and even touches on the possibility of another world war in the not so distant future. I find it rather interesting the names listed of those that were profiteering from WWI, they're the same names that profiteered from WWII and I can guarantee these same people were the ones profiteering from every other war in the 20th Century and this new war. Yes, the names may change but they're the same damn people that are working for the same corporations, same financial houses with the same goal in mind, to profit from the World's misery.

It's amazing, to me, how many Americans don't even know about what Smedley Butler did, don't know about war profiteering and still don't even understand the purpose of both World Wars. It wasn't about spreading freedom, it wasn't about making the World safe, it was about ushering in World Government, consolidating industry into fewer hands and making billions in return. After WWI the League of Nations was formed and failed when the United States didn't join in. After WWII the UN was formed and is still in existence because the United States was manipulated into jumping on board, for those that don't know about Alger Hiss, he was a Soviet spy that brought the UN Charter from SF to DC under lock and key.

To summarize, Smedley Butler is one hell of a Patriot, his Marines loved him and would follow him to hell and back if need be. He shows his Patriotism by exposing the villians that profit from war, by listening to the coup's funders, just to turn them in thus stopping the fascist takeover of America. If you dare to call yourself an American and haven't read this book, I suggest picking it up, reading it very intently and putting two and two together, just because Smedley stopped it in 1933 doesn't mean he's going to come from his grave to stop it NOW, no joke, it's happening right NOW and it's far worse than it was in Smedley's day.

70 years ago this war hero exposed the war racketeeers in short, simple but hard hitting prose. It's just a shame more people didn't listen to him as today a draft dodger and war profiteer sits in the white house. Bush is the epitomy of everything that Smedley Butler warned about.

This book is an anti war classic. Check it out now, you don't even have to pay teh ten bucks; its available online and only takes about twenty minutes to read.

Smedley got it right. I'd also add that there are many wars that serve as rackets, including the War on Drugs and the War on Immigrants, both of which provide all sorts of business for our growing prison industrial complex.
There is actually some footage of General Smedley Butler featured in the documentary "The Corporation." It deals with the attempted corporate coup of the 1940s.
People who appreciate what Butler is saying also will want to check out Eugene Jarecki's documentary on the military industrial complex, "Why We Fight." It's one of the most important DVDs in my collection. I've purchased several copies for sharing, and have seen how it transforms attitudes about war. Hopefully, the American people will make more of an effort to create wealth through more constructive endeavors, like building a renewable energy infrastructure and investing in "natural capitalism." Websites like Sustainable Business and Natural Capitalism provide all sorts of ideas and models of how we can get rich without destroying our souls.

This book is like "Common Sense." It brings to light things that you might not realize until someone else points them out. Afterward the trends that Maj.Gen. Butler brings up are self-evident from then on. It is almost a eureka or "Why didn't I think of that before?" moment. Butler gives few facts but lots of experience. In this day and age, self-evident truth is frowned on; everybody always wants you to quote someone else or show some government report. This book is refreshing in that everything is true if you just sit and think it out logically and apply some academic rigor to his ideas, along with some newer revelations about our history that Butler would not have known but predicted.

He is great at relating how war is engineered and urged on by corporate interests. They are the only benefactors. He is also prophetic in his seeing the coming war with Japan and Germany and how reasons to justify it would be manufactured/engineered and sold to the American people. I do not think that he, or anyone except the Nazis themselves, could envision the industrial murder machine that would be operated in Europe during the Holocaust. But he does see that we ultimately would go to war with Germany on the pretense of defending liberty but pragmatically to bail out the countries to whom we loaned large sums of money and equipment to that were losing the war. And so it happened...and Britain, France, and the Soviet Union remained to pay the debts they incurred with us and we made the Germans pay some of it, too. Japan he saw as a looming economic threat to our expansion in the Pacific and so we would either blockade or embargo Japan to weaken it and force them to attack us. He said all this a decade before it happened.

In the modern age of warfare which, to most historians began globally with the Boer War and for us and Butler the Spanish-American War, gives him some insight to the future with nuclear weapons. No, Butler did not predict the bomb but he said that in this modern age of warfare America would never go to war with a country where there was even a possibility that America might lose. That has been amended to: America will not go to war with another country with nuclear weapons. As Butler says, there is no way that any country could invade us. He does his own math and employs his logistical (amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics)expertise to show how impossible it is unless Canada or Mexico were involved, so the decision to go to war becomes easy for politicians. Since they do not have to risk themselves, their or their constituents captial, or our infrastructure then war is a very easy decision. Sounds eerily similar to today since the best evidence to me that Iraq had no WMDS is the fact that we invaded it. The bomb, of course, levels the playing field since the damage done is catastrophic and could consume our politicians or their corporate masters, it would ruin our country as well as the countries we retaliate against. He also talked about the emergence of superpowers and how one day they would fight wars by proxy (Cold War). The corporatism is also discussed about how those who profit from war will pull out or try and end it when all the profit potential has been realized regardless of the military outcome. A victory has to be sold so that Americans will be willing to go to war just as easily the next time. Vietnam of course broke that mold, the first Gulf war put it back together.

This book is a must read for anyone wanting to wave a flag and shout hooray for our side, or considering going down to the recruiting office on a wave of nationalistic fervor. Do you really know what we are fighting for or do you just think you know? I am a veteran and saw all of it, however I was the one who had to bear the burdens and also got to hear the double-speak going on in the homefront. I like Butler look back on my service and realize that what I was told I was fighting for and what I was actually fighting for were different. I have often been called unpatriotic/supporting terroists for not supporting/loving war, despite my service, that Butler sees as the effectively brain-washed masses who actually believe what government tells them.

Anyone who loves this country should read this book. This book has given me words to describe the feelings I have developed over the years about my government, its policies and their alienation from 95% of the citizenry. Even if most do not know it or refuse to see it. Butler just put on paper my own thoughts

Living in America now is like living with an alcoholic. You are sustained by memories of the good times and the promises of better tomorrows. However, the present is intolerable and can not go on forever. At some point you have to realize that letting go would be best. That is the strength of this book, it gives you the power to realize that the almost religious talk of liberty and justice in our country is just a mask which business and corparate interests wear to get us to do their bidding and that at some point you will have to let go of the delusions you want so much to believe.

I am torn in giving this small collection a rating. In terms of importance, I would give this booklet five stars. In terms of writing style, it would earn one star. Nevertheless, this is the kind of book you must read, for it will shatter your illusions, should you have them, about the nature of American military might. These words, from pen of the most decorated American general, Brigadier General Smedley Butler, form a well supported middle finger in the face of American hegemony and neo-colonialism.

From a literary standpoint, this is not a book. It is a collection of short essays, written as you would expect a brash general to write. "War is a Racket" is but one of a several essays in this short book. In addition to its namesake, the booklet also contains an arguments against American intervention in World War II, and a photo essay of the horrors of war.

I would recommend this booklet to anyone going off to fight yet another war based on lies and secretly intended for the profit of the ruling class. Parents, read this before considering allowing your child to join forces of evil.