4 The Plot to Seize the White House

into battle.  He was even more famous and popular among rank-and-file
leathernecks, doughboys, and bluejackets for the fierce battles he had
fought against the American military hierarchy on behalf of the enlisted
men.  He was also admired, respected, and trusted because of his oneman
fight to compel
Americans
to remember
their tragic war casualties
hidden
away in isolated veterans’ hospitals.



Smedley Butler was a wiry bantam of  a man, shoulders hunched
forward as though braced against the pull of a heavy knapsack, his hawk
nose prominent in the leathery face of an adventurer.  Silhouetted against
a flaming sunset, he made a blazing speech of encouragement in the blunt
language that had kept him in hot water with the nation’s highest-ranking
admirals and generals, not to mention Secretaries of State and Navy.
 “If you don’t hang together, you aren’t worth a damn!” he cried in the
famous hoarse rasp that sent a thrill through every veteran who had heard
it before.  He reminded them that losing battles didn’t mean losing a war.
“I ran for the Senate on a bonus ticket,” he said, “and got the hell beat out
of me.”  But he didn’t intend to stop fighting for the bonus, and neither
should they, he demanded, no matter how stiff the opposition or the
names they were called.
 “They may be calling you tramps now,” he roared, “but in 1917 they
didn’t call you bums! … You are the best-behaved group of men in this
country today.  I consider it an honor to be asked to speak to you. …
Some folks say I am here after something.  That’s a lie.  I don’t want
anything.”  All he wanted, he told the cheering veterans, was to see that
the country they had served dealt with them justly.  He concluded his
exhortation by urging, “When you get home, go to the polls in November
and lick the hell out of those who are against you.  You know who they
are. … No go to it!”
 Afterward he was mobbed by veterans eager to speak to him.  Until
2:30 A.M. he sat sprawled on the ground in front of his tent, listening
sympathetically to tales of lost jobs, families in distress, and troublesome
old wounds.  He slept three hours, then woke up to resume talks with the
veterans.
 Sharing a Bonus Army breakfast of potatoes, hard bread, and