Ett intressant radioprogram på BBC Radio 4 av journalisten Mike Thomson behandlar ett kapitel i den Amerikanska historien som åtminstone jag aldrig hade hört talas om. 1933 var det nära att president Franklin D. Roosevelt avsattes i en kupp ledd av några av USAs mäktigaste företagsledare. Ambitionen var att förvandla USA till en fasciststat med Nazityskland som förebild.
The Whitehouse Coup: The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) [Är man egentligen förvånad?] believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.
Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.
Citat från programet:
"People wanted security, I mean the keyword of the 30's, as now for that matter, was security. Social security, health security, in Amerika in the 30's cared more about security than democracy. And so if a group of businessmen with the help of some people, former military people or current military people, could have brought the economy back and created this sense of security, then yes, it is possible that they would have gotten popular support.
Amerika would have become a dictatorship, democracy would be gone, Amerika would have joined Hitler and Mussolini as a fascist triumpher."
Bloggar om: Franklin D. Roosevelt, fascism, militärkupp, USA, historia
4 kommentarer:
Grymt tips, tack!
Japp. Det där står det bland annat om i boken The Corporation av Joel Bakan. Som är inspiration till dokumentären som har gått på SVT. General Smedley Butler vägrade dock.
Ett citat från honom kan vara en bra illusion, han såg igenom allt till slut:
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National city Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested."
Aha, har sett dokumentären The Corporation, nämns det även i den eller bara boken? Minns inte detta från den, men det kommer ju som sagt fram en hel del intressanta saker i den.
Härligt citat. Antar att generationerna efter honom kan säga i princip samma sak.
Nej. Det är bara med i boken.
En skön TV-dokumentär ändå dock. Borde visas i skolorna...
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