List of Smedley Butler Quotes

One Hundred And Twenty Marines Were Detailed To Officer A Force Of Twenty-six Hundred Haitians.

I Helped Make Mexico, Especially Tampico, Safe For American Oil Interests In 1914. I Helped Make Haiti And Cuba A Decent Place For The National City Bank Boys To Collect Revenues In.

It Is Dressed Into Speeches About Patriotism, Love Of Country...but The Profits...skyrocket.

Out Of War Nations Acquire Additional Territory, If They Are Victorious. They Just Take It. This Newly Acquired Territory Promptly Is Exploited By The Few - The Selfsame Few Who Wrung Dollars Out Of Blood In The War. The General Public Shoulders The Bill.

I Spent Thirty-three Years And Four Months In Active Military Service As A Member Of This Country's Most Agile Military Force, The Marine Corps. I Served In All Commissioned Ranks From Second Lieutenant To Major-general.

I Helped Purify Nicaragua For The International Banking House Of Brown Brothers In 1909-1912. I Brought Light To The Dominican Republic For American Sugar Interests In 1916. In China I Helped To See To It That Standard Oil Went Its Way Unmolested.

War Is Just A Racket... I Believe In Adequate Defense At The Coastline And Nothing Else.

For A Great Many Years, As A Soldier, I Had A Suspicion That War Was A Racket; Not Until I Retired To Civil Life Did I Fully Realize It.

War Is A Racket. It Always Has Been. It Is Possibly The Oldest, Easily The Most Profitable, Surely The Most Vicious.

My Mental Faculties Remained In Suspended Animation While I Obeyed The Orders Of The Higher-ups. This Is Typical With Everyone In The Military Service.

I Had A Swell Racket. I Was Rewarded With Honors, Medals, Promotions. L Might Have Given Al Capone A Few Hints. The Best He Could Do Was To Operate A Racket In Three City Districts. The Marines Operated On Three Continents.

...senate Doc. # 259. The 65th Congress(:)...the Coal Companies Made Between 100% And 7,856% On Their Capital Stock During The War (to End All Wars, Wwi). ...the Leather People Sold Your Uncle Sam Hundreds Of Thousands Of Saddles For The Calvary. But There Wasn't Any Calvary Overseas!

...the War (wwi) Cost Your Uncle Sam $52 Billion. $39 Billion Was Expended In The Actual War Period. This Expenditure Yielded $16 Billion In Profits.

Why Don't Those Damn Oil Companies Fly Their Own Flags On Their Personal Property-maybe A Flag With A Gas Pump On It.

I Selected An Enormous Marine Corps Emblem To Be Tattooed Across My Chest. It Required Several Sittings And Hurt Me Like The Devil, But The Finished Product Was Worth The Pain. I Blazed Triumphantly Forth, A Marine From Throat To Waist. The Emblem Is Still With Me. Nothing On Earth But Skinning Will Remove It.

The Normal Profits Of A Business Concern In The United States Are Six, Eight, Ten, And Sometimes Twelve Percent. But War-time Profits - Ah! That Is Another Matter - Twenty, Sixty, One Hundred, Three Hundred, And Even Eighteen Hundred Per Cent - The Sky Is The Limit.

I Believe In Adequate Defense At The Coastline And Nothing Else. If A Nation Comes Over Here To Fight, Then We'll Fight. The Trouble With America Is That When The Dollar Only Earns 6 Percent Over Here, Then It Gets Restless And Goes Overseas To Get 100 Percent. Then The Flag Follows The Dollar And The Soldiers Follow The Flag.

We Must Take The Profit Out Of War.

War Is A Racket. 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.

Only Those Who Would Be Called Upon To Risk Their Lives For Their Country Should Have The Privilege Of Voting To Determine Whether The Nation Should Go To War.

No One Told These American Soldiers They Might Be Shot Down By Bullets Made By Their Own Brothers Here. No One Told Them That The Ships On Which They Were Going To Cross Might Be Torpedoed By Submarines Built With Us Patents.

I Spent Thirty-three Years In The Marines, Most Of My Time Being A Hlgh Class Muscle Man For Big Business, For Wall Street And The Bankers. In Short, I Was A Racketeer For Capitalism.

My Interest Is, My One Hobby Is, Maintaining A Democracy. If You Get These 500,000 Soldiers Advocating Anything Smelling Of Fascism, I Am Going To Get 500,000 More And Lick The Hell Out Of You, And We Will Have A Real War Right At Home.

War Like Any Other Racket, Pays High Dividends To The Very Few. The Cost Of Operations Is Always Transferred To The People Who Do Not Profit.