WAR IS A RACKET

"War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. ONLY A SMALL INSIDE GROUP KNOWS WHAT IT IS ABOUT. [emphasis added; the Carlyle Group?] It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a NATION [emphasis added] 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.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. 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. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

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. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). 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.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

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"I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Thomas Jefferson

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." Abraham Lincoln

"The rich and the powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes." Andrew Jackson

"Abolish plutocracy if you would abolish poverty." Rutherford B. Hayes

"There can be no effective control of corporations while their political activity remains." Theodore Roosevelt

"Great corporations exist because they are created and safeguarded by our institutions; and it is therefore our right and our duty to see that they work in harmony with those institutions." Theodore Roosevelt

"Private enterprise is ceasing to be free enterprise. Private enterprise indeed became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise." Franklin Roosevelt

"No business is above government, and government must be empowered to deal adequately with any business that tries to rise above government." Franklin Roosevelt

"If monopoly persists, monopoly will always sit at the helm of government. I do not expect monopoly to restrain itself. If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to do it." Woodrow Wilson

"The masters of the Government of the United States are the combined capitalists and manufacturers of the United States." Woodrow Wilson

"There was a time when corporations played a minor role in our business affairs. But now they play the chief part, and most men are servants of corporations." Woodrow Wilson

"... We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for disasterous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Dwight Eisenhower