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Smedley D. Butler

James Landrith

War is a Racket: The Profit Motive Behind Warfare Paperback – April 13, 2010

by Smedley Butler (Author)

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Smedley Darlington Butler (1881-1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye," was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. By the end of his career he had received 16 medals, five of which were for heroism. He is one of 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor, and the only person to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions. He became widely-known for his outspoken lectures against war profiteering, U.S. military adventurism and what he viewed as nascent fascism in the United States. In addition to his speeches to pacifist groups, from 1935 to 1937 he served as a spokesman for the American League Against War and Fascism. In 1935, he wrote the exposé "War Is a Racket," a trenchant condemnation of the profit motive behind warfare.

Print length

28 pages
Language

English
Publisher

World Library Classics
Publication date

April 13, 2010
Dimensions

6 x 0.08 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1434407004
ISBN-13

978-1434407009
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ World Library Classics; 40842nd edition (April 13, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 28 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1434407004
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1434407009
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.08 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #546,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,076 in American Fiction Anthologies

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1,731 ratings

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Bob Cross

TO HELL WITH WAR

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2019

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Periodically I buy copies of Smedley D. Butler's "WAR IS A RACKET" and give them away. I believe at least one copy of this fact infused missive should be in every American home and it should be required reading in every student's education by grade 10.

The font size and the author's brevity in telling the liberating truth of the horrific and deadly game of WAR the unscrupulous, greedy and unpatriotic among us, for their personal financial gain, have conned us into playing at the expense of dumbed down working class soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines used to do the dirty work of plundering, piliging, killing, maiming, dying and protracted suffering for....they know not what.

More and more since 1935 people have been treated like things and corporations like people in the thinking ofcertain White men who find autocratism of one form or another more atatattractive than the American constitutional democratic republic.

As an aging US airborne infantry combat Veteran I highly recommend the companion to WAR IS A RACKET titled "THE PLOT TO SEIZE THE WHITE HOUSE" -Jules Archer.

Could be (Trailer of "THE MULLER INVESTIGATION")

Our nation needs leaders like General Smedley D. Butler today more than ever, before the absolute absence of integrity utterly destroys the promise, hope and reality of one indivisible nation - divinely approved. TO HELL WITH WAR.... and war profiteers.

35 people found this helpful

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C. Eash

Why Do We Go To War?

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2016

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If you don't know about Smedley Butler, the most decorated general of his day, you should read this and his biography. He led troops in China, Cuba, S America, and WWI. He reveals why we have gone to war in the past. It seems like nothing has changed... He probably saved our democracy. The millionaires of his day did not want the New Deal and offered him money to raise an army to overthrow FDR. Instead, he went public with the plot and testified before congress. Why don't we learn about him in school?

85 people found this helpful

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John Walker

Impassioned plea against foreign military adventures by a 2 time Medal of Honor Marine general

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2020

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Smedley Butler knew a thing or two about war. In 1898, a little over a month before his seventeenth birthday, he lied about his age and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, which directly commissioned him a second lieutenant. After completing training, he was sent to Cuba, arriving shortly after the end of the Spanish-American War. Upon returning home, he was promoted to first lieutenant and sent to the Philippines as part of the American garrison. There, he led Marines in combat against Filipino rebels. In 1900 he was deployed to China during the Boxer Rebellion and was wounded in the Gaselee Expedition, being promoted to captain for his bravery.

He then served in the “Banana Wars” in Central America and the Caribbean. In 1914, during a conflict in Mexico, he carried out an undercover mission in support of a planned U.S. intervention. For his command in the battle of Veracruz, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Next, he was sent to Haiti, where he commanded Marines and Navy troops in an attack on Fort Rivière in November 1915. For this action, he won a second Medal of Honor. To this day, he is only one of nineteen people to have twice won the Medal of Honor.

In World War I he did not receive a combat command, but for his work in commanding the debarkation camp in France for American troops, he was awarded both the Army and Navy Distinguished Service Medals. Returning to the U.S. after the armistice, he became commanding general of the Marine training base at Quantico, Virginia. Between 1927 and 1929 he commanded the Marine Expeditionary Force in China, and returning to Quantico in 1929, he was promoted to Major General, then the highest rank available in the Marine Corps (which was subordinate to the Navy), becoming the youngest person in the Corps to attain that rank. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1931.

In this slim pamphlet (just 21 pages in the Kindle edition I read), Butler demolishes the argument that the U.S. military actions in which he took part in his 33 years as a Marine had anything whatsoever to do with the defence of the United States. Instead, he saw lives and fortune squandered on foreign adventures largely in the interest of U.S. business interests, with those funding and supplying the military banking large profits from the operation. With the introduction of conscription in World War I, the cynical exploitation of young men reached a zenith with draftees paid US$30 a month, with half taken out to support dependents, and another bite for mandatory insurance, leaving less than US$9 per month for putting their lives on the line. And then, in a final insult, there was powerful coercion to “invest” this paltry sum in “Liberty Bonds” which, after the war, were repaid well below the price of purchase and/or in dollars which had lost half their purchasing power.

Want to put an end to endless, futile, and tragic wars? Forget disarmament conferences and idealistic initiatives, Butler says,

“The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations [sic] manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation—it must conscript capital and industry. Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted—to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

“Let the workers in these plants get the same wages—all the workers, all presidents, all directors, all managers, all bankers—yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders—everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches!

“Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors [I think “mayors” was intended —JW] pay half their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds.

“Why shouldn't they?”

Butler goes on to recommend that any declaration of war require approval by a national plebiscite in which voting would be restricted to those subject to conscription in a military conflict. (Writing in 1935, he never foresaw that young men and women would be sent into combat without so much as a declaration of war being voted by Congress.) Further, he would restrict all use of military force to genuine defence of the nation, in particular, limiting the Navy to operating no more than 200 miles (320 km) from the coastline.

This is an impassioned plea against the folly of foreign wars by a man whose career was as a warrior. One can argue that there is a legitimate interest in, say assuring freedom of navigation in international waters, but looking back on the results of U.S. foreign wars in the 21st century, it is difficult to argue they can be justified any more than the “Banana Wars” Butler fought in his time.

18 people found this helpful

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As Relevant Today As Ever - A Great Brief Book By A Great Man

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2019

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This is a great book, brief, almost an essay as much as a book, by a great man. The book is distinctly anti war. The author is a career military man. The book was written in 1935, just before the beginning of World War II. I feel it is very important for every American to read and contemplate books like this at this time in our history.

George Washington admonished us not to become entangled in foreign intrigues. Somewhere along the way, about the time Theodore Roosevelt became president, we began to materially deviate from that advice. Certainly the world has become more complicated, but is there another way besides unending conflict?

This book includes a brief description of how we became entangled in World War I. I have read several books by Henry Kissinger. I hope I am not mistaken in which book, but I think it is "Diplomacy", wherein Henry Kissinger examines the thinking and rationale of Woodrow Wilson, in entering the United States in World War I. It is well worth thinking about.

Tony Jundt, another historian, in his book "Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945", goes on to describe World War II as the continuation of another European "Thirty Years War". This, of course, is because negotiations ending World War I were botched. Again, this is a notion worthy of serious contemplation.

In any event I greatly appreciated having the chance to read this book. I purchased the accompanying audiobook and read both simultaneously. The narrator is William Dougan. Mister Dougan is generally very professional. However number amounts in the book are in actual numbers and Mister Dougan repeatedly conflated trillions with billions. That, of course, is not the main point of the book. But as a "numbers kind of guy" I found it slightly distracting. If you only listen to the audiobook, allow for this. If that is too persnickety, I truly apologize. Thank You...

24 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Must Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 11, 2019

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Short book written by an American veteran of the first world war. Unsurprisingly, he is totally against the motivations for sending people to war, especially these days when those who do all the jingoistic motivation for such adventures never put themselves in danger. There is no doubt that war is a very profitable endeavour and it is worth stopping and thinking about why on earth we still feel so keen to put other people's family in danger - I say this as someone whose family members have seen action recently.

Refer to any history of 20th century wars, and at the root is money and the falling out of business interests to the point where wars are declared. Who pays for them? We all know the answer but perhaps have never wondered so much about who profits from them.

4 people found this helpful

J. Whitfield

War is A Racket

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2014

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War is A Racket was first published in 1935. The author, Smedley D. Butler, a retired major general in the US Marine Corps, draws on his experience of warfare to compare and contrast the lot of the poor ordinary soldier; whose role is to do and die; and those with commercial interests who do very nicely from the supply of military hardware and essential supplies to sustain conflict. He argues that if these were nationalised so that big profits could not be made by individuals and companies the threat of war would recede dramatically.
One has only to look at the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to see that Vice President Cheney had been previously heavily associated with Halliburton, a US company that was awarded major contracts for the redevelopment of Iraq in the aftermath of the war to see that what was true then is just as true today. We need more Smedley D. Butlers.
The book is quite short and easily readable in half and hour.

8 people found this helpful

superfrog

A must read for all in these time of blind warmongering

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 5, 2014

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*** this text is in the public domain and can be optained for free from other sources, what you are paying for is kindle friendly formatting ***

While slightly undermined by some confusions in vocabulary in the economics bucket list of individual companies and whole industries having taken unduly profit from the war, this book is an absolute must read.

In our modernity, we all tend to forget how insightful the previous generations were and how, while things have changed in appearance, deeply the same patterns are reused. In this case, the pattern of abusing the majority of the population for the outrageous profit of the few. How current is:

"Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn’t they? It pays high dividends. But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children? What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits? Yes, and what does it profit the nation?"

and how practically sensible is:
"Another step necessary in this fight to smash the war racket is the limited plebiscite to determine whether a war should be declared. A plebiscite not of all the voters but merely of those who would be called upon to do the fighting and dying. There wouldn’t be very much sense in having a 76-year-old president of a munitions factory or the flat-footed head of an international banking firm or the cross-eyed manager of a uniform manufacturing plant -- all of whom see visions of tremendous profits in the event of war -- voting on whether the nation should go to war or not. They never would be called upon to shoulder arms -- to sleep in a trench and to be shot. Only those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determine whether the nation should go to war"

is what you'll find in this.

2 people found this helpful

007

5 Stars for content, but 1 Star for editing.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2012

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Not only does the author have more experience and knowledge on the topic than many other people, but he also proposes a solution instead of simply criticizing.

After reading it friends and family have read it and praised it too. A very easy way to spread some ideas because of it's "friendly" size.

The "book" is based upon a speech which was then built upon to make an article for Readers Digest.

Do not let anything put you off this masterpiece about war. It is however short (around 20 pages but fairly compact text so a lot of words) and it is very poorly edited. It appears like the original was scanned with word recognition software and then was never edited. Because many times words are joined together! Quite shocking level of professionalism considering amazon print this little book themself and it would hardly take much time for an editor or below average reader to circle these obvious mistakes. I paid £2.99 with free post from amazon and this was a fair price, I am shocked to see higher prices for other prints of this considering the compact size.

18 people found this helpful

James Chambers

Smedley Darlington Butler was very astute and saw war as a great deception working on behalf of American corporate business

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 22, 2014

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Five things are ranged against democracy: mankind's innate aggression to survive, mankind's characteristics analogous to those of a virus circumventing outside attacks on its virulence. a system of government where the rich are allowed to have no limits to their wealth and the poor and uneducated are denied even work. Whereas, the rich can easily suborn the elected government officials buying favours reciprocated when the elected official comes into power. The revolving door or corporate officials being granted public office and repeating this obvious conflict of interests.

A great book written by someone who knew that the power to wage war was all too frequently being prosecuted illegally by his own country's corrupt politicians and leaders eager to exploit foreign countries defended by weak armies and weaker governments presenting no militarily threat to a determined and well trained army only to relieve their chosen victim of their nation's wealth and then fraudulently proclaiming to the world audience that it was furthering the cause of democracy.

I thoroughly recommend that everybody buys and reads this very brief but insightful book by someone well acquainted with the art of war, and who could, therefore, be trusted to speak truth to power, and be dammed. Only a man who has shouldered a rifle and faced an enemy intent on killing him knows that those holding the nation's real power to make war never experience this horror and abject fear, probably forfeiting their own lives for someone else's insatiable greed for profit.

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