# Smedley Butler **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 19, 2005, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760 "2005-11-19T03:15:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![66polara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/8dc957/32.png) [@66polara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/66polara)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/1 "2005-11-19T03:15:55Z")
As a somewhat interesting aside, Butler is honored with a Marine Corp Base named after him on Okinawa. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/2 "2005-11-19T04:00:41Z")
Referring to [this column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/051118.html). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/3 "2005-11-19T04:07:12Z")
On a related subject; what were Burr and Wilkinson up to in 1805? ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/4 "2005-11-19T04:10:22Z")
As a somewhat interesting aside, I am so old that I still play the short club convention. [sub]At our house, we don’t have to debate elections or the war while playing bridge–the reprise of the play is generally more vicious than mere political argument can hope to aspire to.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/5 "2005-11-19T04:32:58Z")
He was probably the only person named Smedley. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/6 "2005-11-19T05:26:07Z")
When I went through Marine boot camp in 1961, recruits whose job was to wait on the drill instructors in the mess hall and serve them their food were called “Smedleys”. Get it? They were butlers! Har, har, har! Butlers! Smedleys! Har, har, cough, gack, hrrrmf! Umm, yes, well… ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/7 "2005-11-19T23:18:34Z")
Butler, a two-time Medal of Honor awardee, was well known as a maverick officer. He failed to become Commandant and was put on a dead-end DC billet (ergo pushed into retirement) for being offensive to Benito Mussolini, which in hindsight seems a lame reason to screw over a hero. [Marine Corps Legacy Museum page on Butler](http://www.mclm.com/tohonor/sbutler.html). Shortly upon retirement wrote a book titled _War is a Racket_; his most illustrious quote is a famous passage about imperialism: > [@](#): > > "I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service in the country’s most agile military force, the Marines. I served in all ranks from second Lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. > “Thus I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the raping of half-a-dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras “right” for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.” ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/8 "2005-11-20T00:14:37Z")
> [@movingfinger](#): > > When I went through Marine boot camp in 1961, recruits whose job was to wait on the drill instructors in the mess hall and serve them their food were called “Smedleys”. > > Get it? They were butlers! Har, har, har! Butlers! Smedleys! Har, har, cough, gack, hrrrmf! Umm, yes, well… So…what exactly does the Corps (excuse me, _Corp_) think of old Smedley? ---
**Author:** ![judybinfo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/90db22/32.png) [@judybinfo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/judybinfo)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/9 "2005-11-21T04:09:18Z")
“Though the idea of a popular revolt financed by zillionaires seems harebrained now…” not in my book! corporate America seems to have quite a say in how our government operates, and a bit of control over the press now, too . . . more so than since I first started paying attention, at least (in the Nixon era). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/10 "2005-11-21T04:29:42Z")
[War is a racket](http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm) Can’t believe I never heard of this guy. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/11 "2005-11-21T23:39:12Z")
> [@](#): > > "I spent thirty-three years and four months in active service in the country’s most agile military force, the Marines. I served in all ranks from second Lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. > “Thus I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the raping of half-a-dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras “right” for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.” He didn’t do a very good job, now did he? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smedley-butler/331760/12 "2005-11-22T03:54:28Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > He didn’t do a very good job, now did he? 😉 Oh, while he was around he did a socko job – but then he retired and died and look how everything went down the tubes since 😃 And **judybinfo** , that’s precisely part of the deal – if the _statu quo_ IS at the service of corporate fat cats, anyone from among their ranks seeking to overtly overthrow it would have to be harebrained.