The Great Depression, the conflicts that tested the Republic to its foundations, and the struggle to maintain the commitment to freedom and democracy against powerful interests.
The highly decorated Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler testified in 1934 that he had been recruited by the representatives of powerful industrialists who asked him to bring the Bonus Army back to Washington and take the government over by force from then President Franklin Roosevelt. This was a scheme that was known as The Business Plot.
These wealthy business people were not prosecuted and the incident was quietly swept aside in the interest of domestic confidence and peace.
If Not At Home, Then the Establishment of Oligarchy Abroad
After the failure to overturn democracy in the US, some in the American 'One Percent' became powerful supporters and business associates of Mussolini, and even of the German Third Reich. This business relationship continued long after the criminal brutality of these regimes had become quite obvious to all civilized people.
Their involvement in the rise and promotion of fascist ideology seems to have been largely forgotten.
