The Plot to Overthrow FDR, Ep. 1 -- Introduction (BOOK CLUB SERIES)

Many Americans today will be shocked to learn that in 1933 a cabal of wealthy bankers, businessmen, and industrialists— conspiring with groups like the American Legion, the Ku Klux Klan and the American Liberty League—seriously planned to overthrow the U.S. government in a fascist coup.

Their plan was to turn discontented WWI veterans into American “brown shirts,” take President Franklin Roosevelt hostage, stop the New Deal, and return America to the Gold Standard. Although the plotters hoped that the wheelchair-bound, physically helpless FDR would accede to their demands voluntarily, they intended to have an army of 500,000 battle-trained soldiers ready to take the White House by force of arms if necessary.

The conspirators clandestinely asked Medal of Honor recipient and Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to become the first American Caesar and lead the insurrection. He, though, was a true patriot and blew the whistle to reporters, to Congress, and to President Roosevelt himself.

As fascism was rising in Italy and Nazi Germany, it was also gaining popularity in America during the Great Depression. Had Smedley Butler joined the plot instead of exposing it, our country might well have gone the way of Europe’s military fascist dictatorships.

In 2025, a time when a President has invoked national security to circumvent constitutional checks and balances, deployed National Guard troops on American city streets, and aligned himself with the richest men in the world; when jobless and homeless numbers surge and extreme politics such as fascism are fashionable again, this history book club series puts the spotlight on attacks upon our democracy from within and the individual courage needed to repel them.

Over the coming weeks we will be reading and discussing Jules Archer’s 1973 classic, “The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR.”

Buy a copy of this book and read along with me!
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NOTE: The music featured at the beginning and ending of each episode is excerpted from Duke Ellington’s “Chant for FDR,” (aka “American Lullaby”) composed as a tribute to the president for a nationwide radio broadcast that aired on April 14, 1945, just two days after Roosevelt’s death. This recording was part of Ellington’s Treasury Broadcast series, a weekly program that helped sell war bonds and stamps. The regularly scheduled broadcast was replaced with a memorial program.