General Smedley Butler Letters

The collapse of the stock market propelled the United States into the Great Depression this had a drastic impact on average Americans. Some families were thrown out into homelessness or on the brink of losing their homes. Unemployment rates were overwhelming high forcing many Americans into starvation, homelessness. Countless letters were sent to President Roosevelt between 1934 and 1936. These letters express the misery and poverty American people were enduring on a daily basis. Based on these letters I can assume many people were unemployed or on the verge of being cast out of their homes, as well as starving. Unemployment reached an overwhelming twenty five percent; it was nearly impossible for people to find …show more content…
Butler had served in both the Spanish American war and World War I. Butler delivered his evaluation of the approaching World War II. This war started in the 1930s when Italy, Germany, and Spain accepted Fascism and started to threaten their neighbors. Butler was opposed to America joining the war. He thought that war really only benefitted an elite few. Butler states “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.” Butler saw soldiers go off to war, leave their loved ones, and risk death or injury so millionaires and billionaires could receive added income. He writes “Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends. But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children? What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits?” I do believe Butler was justified in his beliefs; he saw average people fight and die in wars just so the government and the rich could receive