Butler

"War Is a Racket" was authored by Major General Smedley Butler in 1935. Butler is one of just nineteen people to have received a Medal of Honor on two separate occasions. This is the final part of a five part series.

To Hell with War!

I am not a fool as to believe that war is a thing of the past. I know the people do not want war, but there is no use in saying we cannot be pushed into another war.

Looking back, Woodrow Wilson was re-elected president in 1916 on a platform that he had "kept us out of war" and on the implied promise that he would "keep us out of war." Yet, five months later he asked Congress to declare war on Germany.

"War Is a Racket" was authored by Major General Smedley Butler in 1935. Butler is one of just nineteen people to have received a Medal of Honor on two separate occasions. This is part four of five parts.

How to Smash This Racket!

WELL, it's a racket, all right.

A few profit – and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

"War Is a Racket" was authored by Major General Smedley Butler in 1935. Butler is one of just nineteen people to have received a Medal of Honor on two separate occasions. This is Part 3 of five parts.

Who Pays the Bills?

Who provides the profits – these nice little profits of 20, 100, 300, 1,500 and 1,800 per cent? We all pay them – in taxation. We paid the bankers their profits when we bought Liberty Bonds at $100.00 and sold them back at $84 or $86 to the bankers. These bankers collected $100 plus. It was a simple manipulation.

"War Is a Racket" was authored by Major General Smedley Butler in 1935. Butler is one of just nineteen people to have received a Medal of Honor on two separate occasions. This is Part 2 of five parts.

Who Makes the Profits?

The World War, rather our brief participation in it, has cost the United States some $52,000,000,000. Figure it out. That means $400 to every American man, woman, and child. And we haven't paid the debt yet. We are paying it, our children will pay it, and our children's children probably still will be paying the cost of that war.

"War Is a Racket" was authored by Major General Smedley Butler in 1935. Butler is one of just nineteen people to have received a Medal of Honor on two separate occasions. This is Part 1 of five parts.

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.