A new book series by Salon's founder introduces unsung heroes, like the general who saved FDR from a coup
-
In 1900, Smedley Butler was an 18-year-old Marine lieutenant
-
Butler and his fellow soldiers marched into battle
-
Butler was a major, battling rebels in Nicaragua
-
President Wilson sent Butler and the Marines storming ashore in Haiti
-
America’s imperial exploits inevitably resulted in the brutalization of native populations
-
It was the senseless industrial slaughter of World War I that at last turned Butler against the “war racket.”
-
In 1924, as Prohibition Era gangsterism ran wild in America’s cities, Butler took a leave from the Marines
-
Despite Butler’s growing opposition to senseless wars
-
In summer 1932, during the depths of the Depression, Butler electrified a ragtag army of World War I veterans
-
President Franklin Roosevelt’s efforts to pull the country out of the Depression
