Potus Geeks Book Review: The Plots Against the President by Sally Denton
As the Great Depression overtook the United States in the early 1930s, Americans looked in desperation for a savior, even going so far as to flirt with some of the extreme forms of government that had taken hold in Europe, such as fascism and communism. When Herbert Hoover alienated the nation over his failure to address the economic suffering of his countrymen, and his mistreatment of the "Bonus Army" of desperate veterans, the stage was set for the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But as much as Roosevelt was seen as a ray of hope by many, he was not without those who were eager to viciously attack him, once he was inaugurated.
In her 2012 book (reprinted in 2019) The Plots Against the President: FDR, a Nation in Crisis and the Rise of the American Right, prolific author Sally Denton concisely but efficiently examines the threats facing the Roosevelt presidency from its inception, describing how the man who claimed that the only thing to fear was fear itself was confronted with real fear-inducing threats, both from the left and from the right.
The patrician, blue-blooded president elect, who came from old money, was at first seen by many as just another rich man with Wall Street loyalties, who had no empathy for the millions of Americans who were encountering the suffering and misery brought about by the depression. This impression was reinforced when the President-elect chose to precede his inauguration by going on a cruise on a yacht belonging to a prominent member of the Astor family. But as Roosevelt's early policies sought to comfort the afflicted by afflicting the comfortable, he was soon branded a "traitor to his class" by the wealthy. His New Deal policies such as his bank holiday, his expansion of the currency supply, his regulation of the stock market, and most alarming to millionaires, his removal of America from the gold standard, soon made him powerful enemies on Wall Street.
Denton writes about the many threats facing Roosevelt both politically and personally. These include the left-wing populism from Louisiana demagogue Huey Long, from the anti-semitic "radio priest" Father Charles Couglin, and from disaffected wealthy Democrats and Republicans alike who formed the so-called "American Liberty League" led by publisher William Randolph Hearst and by former Democratic presidential candidates Al Smith and John Davis. But the two threats most closely examined by Denton are the attempted assassination of President-Elect Roosevelt in Miami by Italian-American anarchist Giuseppe Zangara, and the "Wall Street Putsch" (also known as the "Business Plot"), an attempt by wealthy industrialists to convince the famed maverick Marine General Smedley Butler to lead an insurrection to take over the White House by force if necessary.
The author has done a superb job of researching both of these incidents, including a careful review of Zangara's jailhouse memoirs and the notes from a series of interviews with the would-be assassin by FDR's key adviser Raymond Moley. This is a fascinating account of an incident often given short shift in biographies of Roosevelt.
The story of the attempted coup involving the incorruptible Butler is a little-known episode occurring early on in Roosevelt's presidency that was recently resurrected as the basis for the 2022 film Amsterdam. Denton examines Butler's account of the efforts made to entice him to lead an army of veterans to intimidate the President and turn him into a lame duck, along with the evidence of the plot presented to a Congressional Committee and the subsequent white-washing of the whole affair, doing so not only as a retelling of a forgotten moment in Presidential history, but also as a cautionary tale about how such things are not simply the product of the minds of conspiracy theorists, but in fact they really do happen.
At under 270 pages, this is enjoyable to read, and is also a timely reminder of the fragility of democracy and of the tense relationship between elected government and the interests of the wealthy.
In her 2012 book (reprinted in 2019) The Plots Against the President: FDR, a Nation in Crisis and the Rise of the American Right, prolific author Sally Denton concisely but efficiently examines the threats facing the Roosevelt presidency from its inception, describing how the man who claimed that the only thing to fear was fear itself was confronted with real fear-inducing threats, both from the left and from the right.
The patrician, blue-blooded president elect, who came from old money, was at first seen by many as just another rich man with Wall Street loyalties, who had no empathy for the millions of Americans who were encountering the suffering and misery brought about by the depression. This impression was reinforced when the President-elect chose to precede his inauguration by going on a cruise on a yacht belonging to a prominent member of the Astor family. But as Roosevelt's early policies sought to comfort the afflicted by afflicting the comfortable, he was soon branded a "traitor to his class" by the wealthy. His New Deal policies such as his bank holiday, his expansion of the currency supply, his regulation of the stock market, and most alarming to millionaires, his removal of America from the gold standard, soon made him powerful enemies on Wall Street.
Denton writes about the many threats facing Roosevelt both politically and personally. These include the left-wing populism from Louisiana demagogue Huey Long, from the anti-semitic "radio priest" Father Charles Couglin, and from disaffected wealthy Democrats and Republicans alike who formed the so-called "American Liberty League" led by publisher William Randolph Hearst and by former Democratic presidential candidates Al Smith and John Davis. But the two threats most closely examined by Denton are the attempted assassination of President-Elect Roosevelt in Miami by Italian-American anarchist Giuseppe Zangara, and the "Wall Street Putsch" (also known as the "Business Plot"), an attempt by wealthy industrialists to convince the famed maverick Marine General Smedley Butler to lead an insurrection to take over the White House by force if necessary.
The author has done a superb job of researching both of these incidents, including a careful review of Zangara's jailhouse memoirs and the notes from a series of interviews with the would-be assassin by FDR's key adviser Raymond Moley. This is a fascinating account of an incident often given short shift in biographies of Roosevelt.
The story of the attempted coup involving the incorruptible Butler is a little-known episode occurring early on in Roosevelt's presidency that was recently resurrected as the basis for the 2022 film Amsterdam. Denton examines Butler's account of the efforts made to entice him to lead an army of veterans to intimidate the President and turn him into a lame duck, along with the evidence of the plot presented to a Congressional Committee and the subsequent white-washing of the whole affair, doing so not only as a retelling of a forgotten moment in Presidential history, but also as a cautionary tale about how such things are not simply the product of the minds of conspiracy theorists, but in fact they really do happen.
At under 270 pages, this is enjoyable to read, and is also a timely reminder of the fragility of democracy and of the tense relationship between elected government and the interests of the wealthy.