The Plots Against the President (28 page)

196 “His protagonists in the present scrap”: Schmidt, 225.

196 “You watch”: U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 20.

196–197 “to combat radicalism” … “fomenting class hatred”: Archer, 30.

197 “plot to seize the White House”: Ibid., 32.

Chapter Thirty-six: The Bankers Gold Group

198 “There was definitely something crazy”: Gentry, 203.

198 “bankers gold group”: Schmidt, 223.

198–199 “by selling them political” … “enraged by Roosevelt”: Archer, 33. See also U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 19.

199 “irrepressible temper and tongue”: Ibid., 34.

199 “in hot water”: Wolfskill, 82.

199 “Remington Arms”: “U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 21.

199–200 “We need a Fascist government” … “obtained enough information” … “unemployment situation” … “muffed it terrifically” … “solve it overnight” … “ideal” … “putting all of the unemployed”: Ibid., 21–22.

200 “I have been in 752 different towns”: Ibid., 19.

200 “If you get 500,000 soldiers”: Ibid., 18.

200 “Hoover knew a loaded gun”: Gentry, 204.

201 “with Hoover's skillful handling”: Ibid., 201.

201 “a very careful and searching”: Hoover memo, May 10, 1934, FBI FOIA file.

202 “Five Negroes on my place”: Spivak, 295.

202 “hid the fact”: Slayton, 380.

202 “The financial community”: Wolfskill, 29.

202 “New Deal spokesmen”: Wolfskill, ix.

Chapter Thirty-seven: The Investigation

204 Because of the controversial nature of some of the secondary texts relating to the alleged coup, I have relied on the primary and secondary sources I found to be most credible: The congressional hearings, reports, and published testimony; the initial reporting of Paul Comly French; the statements of Congressmen Dickstein and McCormack; General Butler's initial claims and later statements on the matter; and the analyses and accounts of journalists and academics, including Curt Gentry, Clayton Cramer, Arthur McFall, Hans Schmidt, Robert Cochran, Gerard Zilg, Jules Archer, Nicholas Fox Weber, George Seldes, and George Wolfskill. Journalist John L. Spivak, while researching Nazism for
New Masses
magazine, obtained permission from Dickstein to examine HUAC's public and private documents. His two-part series, titled “Wall Street's Fascist Conspiracy,” while revealing and explosive, was stigmatized for its extreme left-wing slant in much the same way
Time
magazine's coverage was criticized for its right-wing slant.

204 “To be perfectly fair”: Butler, quoted in Seldes,
You Can't Do That
, 175.

205 “his position on sound money”: U.S. Congress,
Public Hearings Report
, 36.

205 “study securities”: Ibid., 31.

205 “superorganization”: Ibid., 34.

205 “hanging himself”: Dickstein, quoted in Weber, 196.

205 “if the facts warrant”: “Inquiry Pressed in ‘Fascist Plot,' ”
New York Times
, November 22, 1934.

205 “a damned lie”:
New York Post
, November 20, 1934.

206 “strongly urged” … “American Fascist movement”:
Washington Times
, November 21, 1934.

206 “I believe that Clark has cold feet” … “MacGuire is shielding somebody”: “Watch 2 in Paris After Expose of Fascist ‘Coup,' ”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, November 27, 1934.

206 “immediate emphatic denials” … “barked” … “He had better” … “perfect moonshine” … “expressed amazement and amusement”: “General Butler Bares ‘Fascist Plot' to Seize Government by Force,”
New York Times
, November 21, 1934.

207 “This committee has had no evidence”: U.S. Congress,
Public Statement
, 1.

207 “still intends to get to the bottom” … “neither as whitewash”: “Butler Plot Inquiry Not to Be Dropped,”
New York Times
, November 26, 1933.

207 “The press … handled the Butler”: Wolfskill, 97.

207 “Plot Without Plotters” … “his spurs clinked loudly” … “Such was the nightmarish”:
Time
, December 3, 1934.

207 “What can we believe?”: Wolfskill, 97.

208 “was able to verify”: Archer, 192.

208 “Evidence was obtained” … “In making public”: “The Fascist Plot Officially Confirmed.” U.S. Congress, Report No. 153.

209 “bowing to the power”: Butler, quoted in Weber, 204.

209 “you and I were cut out”: Butler, quoted in Schmidt, 218.

210 “The committee found”: Cochran, 156.

210 “quickly and quietly fizzled”: McFall, 24.

210 “Schnozzle, Gimlet Eye” … “that General Butler's story”: Weber, 205.

210 “Dear John”: Letter from official with the Six Companies Inc. to Congressman John McCormack, November 22, 1934. The letter remained classified until released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act in 2010. FBI censors redacted the identity of the correspondent.

211 “the President take the people”: Letter from Roosevelt supporter to the president, March 18, 1935. The identity of the author was redacted by FBI censors.

211 “No one quite knew”: Schlesinger, 3:83

211 “The Fascist plot”: Seldes,
You Can't Do That
, 185.

211 “little reason to doubt” … “working both ends”: Schmidt, 227.

211 “blown the whistle”: Ibid., 228.

212 “The Congressional Committee”: Baldwin, quoted in Spivak, 330.

212 “cocktail putsch”: Schlesinger, 3:83.

212 “History is littered”: Anthony J. Principi, “Veterans as Revolutionaries,” speech to the Smithsonian's Wilson Library, March 14, 2001.

212 “There was no doubt”: McCormack, quoted in Weber, 205.

Chapter Thirty-eight: Are You Better Off Than You Were Last Year?

214 “I am interested in having it”: Roosevelt, quoted in Archer, 186.

215 “An apparently serious”: Cramer, 46.

215 “in the interest of both”: Ickes, quoted in Cramer, 46.

215 “one of the most extensive”: Wolfskill and Hudson, 161.

215 “save the Constitution”: Elliott Roosevelt,
F.D.R.: His Personal Letters
, 1:381.

215 “Roosevelt's friends”: Rosenman, quoted in Wolfskill, 163.

215 “If the First Hundred Days”: Morgan, 423.

216 “hellhound of Wall Street”: Perino, 287.

216 “There's finally a cop”: Will Rogers, quoted in Perino, 294.

216 “Set a thief”: Beschloss, 88.

216 “The private and uncontrolled”: Schlesinger,
Congress Investigates
, 2743.

216 “had nudged the United States”: Ibid., 2745.

216 “depended to a large extent': Ibid., 2747.

216 “The time has come”: Ibid., 2754.

217 “the financial angel” … “brought a thunderous clap”: Ibid., 2756.

217 “caricature of capitalism”: Shlaes, 190.

217 “lack of appreciation”: Black, 393.

217 “Are You Better Off”: Roosevelt campaign slogan.

217 “There has been no such popular endorsement”: Hearst, quoted in Schlesinger, 3:1.

217 “He has been all but crowned by the people”: William Allen White, quoted in Schlesinger, 3:1.

Epilogue: The Paranoid Style of American Politics

219 “Smedley” … “call out the standing army” … “they would take care” … “I pointed out”: The account of Coughlin's recruitment of Butler can be found in the FBI FOIA file on Smedley Butler.

220 “subversive activities”: Hoover, quoted in Gentry, 207.

220 “apparently promised”: Gentry, 206.

220 “Imagine a bloodless”:
Newsmax
, October 2009.

221 “several reader complaints”: Ibid.

221 “the paranoid style”: Hofstadter,
Paranoid Style
.

221 “has changed as much”:
Politics Daily
, October 2009.

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