The Plot to Overthrow FDR

Corporate Interest Plot to Overthrow US Government. Approximately 72-years ago, the predecessor to the House Un-American Affairs Committee, known as the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, investigated claims made by Marine Corps General Smedley Butler that a vast right-wing conspiracy funded by the American Liberty League (Wiki) (funded by US Steel, Goodyear, DuPont, Morgan-Stanley, Chase-Manhattan, Remington Arms, and others) with backing from some of America's wealthiest citizens (such as Al Smith and Irene DuPont) and various Wall Street interests (1930s American Business seemed to be pro-fascism as a hedge against communists and socialists to protect their own wealth in the face of the Great Depression). Their goal was to overthrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt and install a military dictatorship in order to stop FDR's New Deal and its "redistribution of wealth" and to enact fascist policies to protect the economy and their investments.
Butler's cooperation was solicited by promising him a 500,000 man army and playing on his loyalty to his troops (they maintained that WW1 soldiers were due a bonus - they insisted it be paid in gold).
The cover story was to be that Roosevelt had fallen ill, with Gerald C. MacGuire giving Major General Smedley Darlington Butler assurances that:

"You know the American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign that the President's health is failing. Everyone can tell that by looking at him, and the dumb American people will fall for it in a second..."

Butler, having allies in Congress and the Press, decided to testify. The American press, including the New York Times and Time Magazine, largely ignored the matter, as did the American populace. Despite ample corroborating evidence, no indictments ever resulted from the hearings, and the Congressional Record was scrubbed of any embarassing statements and references to the business elite, with no full and complete transcripts existing to this day. Transcripts and PFS of the committees findings can be found here. [from MetaFilter.com]