ST ch 37 Business Plot

[Joseph Tracy]

Unfortunately Eisenhower did not have the courage or good sense to 
resist the complete takeover of US foreign policy by Allen Dulles and 
his CIA cohorts, who included several ex Nazi officers. How he 
accomplished this with little resistance from Ike is documented very 
well in David Talbot's very readable book The Devil's Chessboard: Allen 
Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government.
The author also details how Dulles and Angleton, while in the OSS, 
defied FDR policies by favoring friendly relations with ex Nazis and 
helping German industrialists protect their financial assets.

On 5/9/26 11:08 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:
> Eisenhower’s famous taking-his-leave speech did not have the word
> “Corporate” edited out, say historians, since corporate and industrial
> Overlap there was a far more damning —very Pynchon-adjacent —word that did
> not get used although it was discussed ( and in drafts): Congressional.
>
> Ike and team DID want to hit hard on the military and corporate industrial
> vise. Sometimes it takes  it takes a a courageous General as President.
>
> On Sat, May 9, 2026 at 10:39 AM Robin Landseadel via Pynchon-l <
> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>
>> Michael Bailey : “...until he finally accesses the power of speech enough
>> to blame Roosevelt.”
>>
>> “I knew it. The minute that damned Bolshevik Roosevelt got into office—”
>>
>> “Only for a minute and a half. There was a coup. Gang of millionaires
>> including a couple of
>> Roosevelt’s own Brain Trusters, like that Hugh Johnson. General MacArthur
>> is in command
>> now.”
>>
>> 284
>>
>> I guess this is as good a spot as any to remind folks that this tale is,
>> after all, a novel, fictional, at
>> least in part, you know, with a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta
>> what-have-you's. And, uh, lotta strands to
>> keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head. Luckily I'm
>> adhering to a pretty strict,
>> uh, drug regimen to keep my mind, you know, limber.
>>
>>   Were there Swing Kids? Yup, but that movement began in 1939 and, being
>> young and Aryan
>> and all that, didn’t get severely hassled until the 1940s. Time is a bit
>> wobbly in the book. We
>> start in 1932 in Milwaukee. It’s Christmas time, remember? Those “elves”
>> with the surprise gift
>> for Hicks:
>>
>> “ . . . To a concertina rendition of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” half a
>> block away, Hicks is
>> handed a parcel wrapped in festive red-and-green paper whose design
>> features Xmas trees, reindeer, candy canes and so forth. Ribbon tied in a
>> big bow. Something to do with Christmas. . . “
>>
>> 102
>>
>> “Wait, the name here, this isn’t me, this is for someone else, you got the
>> wrong—”
>>
>> “Got to breeze, children all over the world to deal with, you understand.”
>>
>> “You have a real Merry Xmas now, Mister Schultz.”
>> 103
>>
>> “ . . . Arthur Simon Flegenheimer (August 6, 1901 – October 24, 1935),
>> known as Dutch
>> Schultz, was an American mobster based in New York City
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City in the 1920s and 1930s. He
>> made
>> his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging
>> and the numbers racket.
>> Schultz's rackets were weakened by two tax evasion trials led by United
>> States Attorney
>> Thomas Dewey, and also threatened by fellow mobster Lucky Luciano.
>>
>> Schultz asked the Commission, the governing body of the American Mafia,
>> for permission to kill
>> Dewey, in an attempt to avert his conviction. They refused. When Schultz
>> disobeyed them and made an attempt to kill Dewey, the Commission ordered
>> his murder in 1935. Schultz was shot at a restaurant in Newark, New Jersey,
>> and died the next day.
>>
>> Dutch Schultz - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Schultz
>>
>> So, from this point on, Hicks is on the run, whether he knows it or not.
>> He takes a train to New
>> York. Finds himself on the Stupendica in a Saturnalian party zone with
>> British spies, Gyro
>> pilots and aficionados of nose candy. Winds up in Transylvania in the
>> sidecar of a motorcycle
>> bouncing along rutted roads. All of this ambulating is going to take some
>> time, and then there’s
>> stretch between Chapter 28:
>>
>> “ . . . “Well-known condition,” nods Slide, “you might call it
>> post-American, some choose it
>> deliberately, some not, but whatever it is you’re headed for it, and on
>> the express track too,
>> allow me to point out . . . “
>>
>> 210
>>
>> To around chapter 35:
>>
>> “ . . . Hicks runs into Daphne down at the harbor . . . “
>>
>> 267
>>
>> . . . where we are firmly in “The Zone”, Hicks is usually out of the
>> picture and an awful lot is
>> going on, a vision of pure anarchy under threat from the incursion of
>> fascism. The end of the
>> book is also Xmas time, a full year has passed. A passage recalls a
>> similar scene in Gravity’s
>> Rainbow:
>>
>> “Gordon Bennett, you again.”
>>
>> “Nice tune there, Pip.”
>>
>> “Dives and Lazarus. Old story from the Gospel of Luke, rich bloke throwing
>> a party, down and
>> out leper starving outside on the pavement, technically it’s a Christmas
>> carol, though
>> uncomfortable for the average churchgoer given its rather keen element of
>> class hostility, not
>> always first choice when the youngsters go round caroling . . . “
>>
>> 241
>>
>> "Gordon Bennett" is an English-language idiomatic phrase used to express
>> surprise, contempt, outrage, disgust, frustration or exasperation.
>>
>> Gordon Bennett (phrase) - Wikipedia
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Bennett_(phrase)
>>
>> Ralph Vaughan-Williams’ Five Variants on “Dives and Lazarus” is a very
>> close relative of
>> “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” by the same composer, the kind of
>> composition that
>> makes you feel like you’re floating to the top of a cathedral filled with
>> light:
>>
>> https://youtu.be/hRBuobu57fU?si=iZQQ1CteqISC_gLd
>>
>> “Reminding him it does happen in fact to be almost Christmas season. Snuck
>> up on him as
>> usual.”
>>
>> 242
>>
>> So, it’s Xmas time,1933. Hitler is already Chancellor of Germany.  There
>> was an attempted millionaire's coup in 1933. It’s interesting that Hugh
>> Johnson’s name comes up, considering his history:
>>
>> “ . . . but in spring 1933 Roosevelt charged Hugh S. Johnson—an Army
>> veteran turned
>> businessman and progressive—with administering the new Act. On June 16,
>> 1933, the (National
>> Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) took effect. Title II of the Act created
>> the Public Works
>> Administration to fund construction projects, while Title I established
>> the National Recovery
>> Administration (NRA) to oversee industry codes for “fair competition . . .
>> ”
>>
>> “ . . . The NRA involved ending the Great Depression by organizing
>> thousands of businesses
>> under codes drawn up by trade associations and industries. According to
>> biographer John Ohl
>> (as summarized by reviewer Lester V. Chandler):
>>
>> Johnson's priorities became evident almost immediately. In the
>> prescription, "Self regulation of
>> industry under government supervision" the emphasis was to be on maximum
>> freedom for
>> business to formulate its own rules with a minimum of government
>> supervision. Consumer
>> protection and the interests of labor were of decidedly lesser importance.
>> To induce business to
>> formulate and abide by codes of fair competition Johnson was willing to
>> condone almost any
>> type of price fixing, restriction of production, limitation of productive
>> capacity, and other types of
>> anti-competitive practices . . . “
>>
>> “ . . . Johnson came under attack by Labor Secretary Frances Perkins for
>> having "un-American
>> policies". He distributed copies of a fascist tract called "The Corporate
>> State" by one of Benito
>> Mussolini’s favorite economists, Bruno Biagi, including giving one to
>> Perkins and asking her to
>> give copies to Roosevelt's cabinet . . . “
>>
>> Hugh S. Johnson - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_S._Johnson
>>
>> The “Business Plot:
>>
>> “The Business Plot, also called the Wall Street Putsch and the White House
>> Putsch, was a
>> political conspiracy in 1933 in the United States to overthrow the
>> government of President
>> Franklin D. Roosevelt and install Smedly Butler as dictator.  Butler, a
>> retired Marine Corps major
>> general, testified under oath that wealthy businessmen were plotting to
>> create a fascist
>> veterans' organization with him as its leader and use it in a coup d'État
>> to overthrow Roosevelt.
>> In 1934, Butler testified under oath before the United States House of
>> Representatives Special
>> Committee on Un-American Activities (the “McCormack-Dickstein” Committee")
>> on these
>> revelations.  Although no one was prosecuted, the congressional committee
>> final report said,
>> "there is no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned,
>> and might have been
>> placed in execution when and if the financial backers deemed it expedient."
>>
>> Early in the committee's gathering of testimony most major news media
>> dismissed the plot, with
>> a New York Times editorial characterizing it as a "gigantic hoax". When
>> the committee's final
>> report was released, the Times said the committee "purported to report
>> that a two-month
>> investigation had convinced it that General Butler's story of a Fascist
>> march on Washington was
>> alarmingly true" and "... also alleged that definite proof had been found
>> that the much publicized
>> Fascist march on Washington, which was to have been led by Major Gen.
>> Smedley D. Butler,
>> retired, according to testimony at a hearing, was actually contemplated".
>> The individuals
>> involved all denied the existence of a plot.
>>
>> While historians have questioned whether a coup was actually close to
>> execution, most agree
>> that some sort of subversive plan was contemplated and discussed. . . “
>>
>> Business Plot - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
>>
>> The “Gang of millionaires” coup was a real thing but did not turn out
>> exactly as the
>> insurrectionists had hoped, thanks to them thinking that General Smedly
>> Butler would go along
>> with the conspiracy. Not only did Smedly (gotta love that name) throw the
>> deal, he is/was
>> famous for “War is a Racket”, a pamphlet which he wrote in 1937:
>>
>> “WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily
>> the most profitable, surely
>> the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the
>> only one in which the profits
>> are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best
>> described, I believe, as
>> something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a
>> small "inside" group
>> knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few,
>> at the expense of the very
>> many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. In the World War [I] a
>> mere handful
>> garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and
>> billionaires were made
>> in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge
>> blood gains in their
>> income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax
>> returns no one knows . . .
>> “
>>
>> warisaracket https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.pdf
>>
>> Worth reading, he is talking about the Military-Industrial-Corporate
>> Complex (the original
>> wording of Ike’s, before “they” edited the phrase) and the real costs of
>> the Second World War,
>> then in progress.
>>
>> I would like to note that coup or no, the results were as General Smedly
>> Butler feared, which
>> might be the point.
>>
>> “There must be a pony in here somewhere.”
>>
>> --
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>>
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