The Business Plot
12:28 @ 22/03/2008
The Business Plot (also known as the Plot Against FDR or the White House Putsch) was a political conspiracy from 1933. It involved several wealthy businessmen, who planned to overthrow the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Details of the plot came to light in early 1934, when retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified before the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional Committee.[1] In his testimony, Butler claimed that a group of men had approached him as part of a scheme to overthrow Roosevelt in a military coup. One of the alleged plotters, Gerald MacGuire, vehemently denied any such plot. In their final report, the Congressional committee supported Butler's allegations of the existence of the plot,[2] but no prosecutions or further investigations followed, and the matter was mostly forgotten.
Major General Butler claimed that the American Liberty League was the plot's primary source of funding. The main backers were the Du Pont family, as well as leaders of U.S. Steel, General Motors, Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The 2007 BBC radio documentary "The Whitehouse Coup"[3] alleged that Prescott Bush, father and grandfather to the 41st and 43rd US Presidents respectively, was also connected with the plot.[4]
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