The United States Marine Corps boasts a pantheon of heroes stretching all the way back to the storming of the shores of Tripoli. Smedley Butler ranks high among them for his exploits during the Boxer Rebellion, World War I, and Haiti. But his military record does not tell the whole story. After retiring, he became an avid pacifist and fierce opponent of fascism in America.
Born in Pennsylvania on July 30, 1881, Butler was a brave and outgoing boy. He dropped out of school and lied about his age to join the adventure sparked by the bombing of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor. He arrived in Cuba too late to take part in any of the action. Any disappointment he may have felt would be erased later in his career when he would win the Medal of Honor twice and risk his life frequently for his fellow soldiers.
The Boxer Rebellion
After the United States defeated Spain in the brief war in 1898, Butler was sent as part of the miltiary force heading to China to defeat the Boxer Rebellion. Smedley Butler made a name for himself at the Battle of Tientsin, where the Allies stumbled into an assault. Butler and five other men rescued a wounded soldier from a ditch, for which he would earn a battlefield promotion to Captain.
Gunboat Diplomacy and the Marines
His career carried him to several Caribbean islands, most notably Haiti. It was there that he led a courageous attack on Fort Riviere. According to author Max Boot in his book Savage Wars of Peace, Butler once walked up to an enemy general who had disrespected him and "abruptly pulled him off the saddle.(p. 162)" Butler and the Marines made short work of the Haitian cacos.
On November 17, 1915, Butler and his men crawled through a drainage pipe in the wall of the fort and fought the Haitians in the courtyard. For some reason the Haitians threw down their weapons and used hand weapons. Without guns, the cacos did not stand a chance against Butler's Marines.
Butler was awarded his second Medal of Honor by Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The first Medal was given to him for his actions in Veracruz, Mexico the year before.
Smedley Butler as a Pacifist
Later in life he would become the liason between rival Chinese factions and the American government, earning the respect of both the Communist forces and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist movement. In 1929 he was promoted to Major General, the youngest to hold that position at the time.
When he was turned down for a high ranking post, Butler retired from active duty and began a lucrative career as a writer and spokesperson for the American League Against War and Fascism. Butler condemned "gangster capitalism" and claimed he had been the tool of Big Business when in the Marines. He wrote a book called War is a Racket and revealed to Congress a plan by Big Business to overthrow the American government led by Franklin Roosevelt.
He died in 1940, before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Smedley Butler, or "The Fighting Quaker" as he was affectionately called, left his country and Marine Corps a war hero, a pacifist, a writer and a legend.
Recommended Reading:
Max Boot, The Savage Wars of Peace.
Victor Mobley - I'm an undergrad student at Central Michigan University. I write on many topics, but mostly history and poltiics. Sometimes I do venture ...
