Weekend Listening: The White House Coup of 1933 - BBC4

This is an interesting topic, not because we believe in a plot by the wealthy and powerful Americans to throw in their lot with the more pro-business Hitler and Mussolini, but because it helps to portray the early days of the Great Depression in a more realistic light.

They were not a time of dignified suffering and widespread acts of kindness and compassion. They were often mean-spirited, violent, fraught with scams and snares for the weak, a particularly dangerous time in America with the rise of demagogues from both the Left and Right.

This was a difficult period in our history, poorly understood and insufficiently studied in our schools. Here is one aspect of it of which you may never have heard. It tends to upset people, because it disturbs the conventional view of history. This is not particular to the US.

There is no smoking gun in this program. There was a plot. It was investigated and the details of the investigation were not disclosed An American military hero, Smedley Butler, exposed it. This much we do know.

BBC4 does a reasonably even handed job of presenting facts, and surmise, and differentiating them.

Our friend Bart, at NowandFutures.com, has converted the radio broadcast to MP3 and has made it available here:

The White House Coup of 1933


Additional Reading:

The Business Plot of 1933 - Wikipedia

Smedley Butler - Wikipedia

American Liberty League - Wikipedia