{"id":37481,"date":"2023-08-03T23:24:38","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T03:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/?p=37481"},"modified":"2023-08-03T23:24:38","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T03:24:38","slug":"war-is-a-racket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/war-is-a-racket\/","title":{"rendered":"War Is A Racket"},"content":{"rendered":"

War Is a Racket<\/b><\/i>\u00a0is a speech and a 1935 short book by\u00a0Smedley D. Butler<\/a>, a retired\u00a0United States Marine Corps<\/a>\u00a0Major General<\/a>\u00a0and two-time\u00a0Medal of Honor<\/a>\u00a0recipient.[2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Based on his career military experience, Butler discusses how\u00a0business<\/a>\u00a0interests\u00a0commercially benefit<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0warfare<\/a>. He had been appointed commanding officer of the\u00a0Gendarmerie<\/a>\u00a0during the 1915\u20131934\u00a0United States occupation of Haiti<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Butler retired from the US Marine Corps in October 1931, he made a nationwide tour in the early 1930s giving his speech “War Is a Racket”. The speech was so well received that he wrote a longer version as a short book published in 1935. His work was condensed in\u00a0Reader’s Digest<\/a><\/i>\u00a0as a book supplement, which helped popularize his message. In an introduction to the\u00a0Reader’s Digest<\/i>\u00a0version,\u00a0Lowell Thomas<\/a>, who wrote Butler\u2019s oral autobiography, praised Butler’s “moral as well as physical courage”.[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n