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Comment by DDSDev | Hacker News Reader

For anyone curious, Smedley Butler died in 1940[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

Which was probably good for his reputation. Some people die at the right time. Had he lived a bit longer he might have come out against entry into WWII, which would not have aged well.

He was an Anti-Fascist, but wanted to prevent a war with the Fascists. In fact, he was so Anti-Fascist, that the US Government apologized to Benito Mussolini on his behalf, and court-martialed him over his Anti-Fascist comments about Mussolini.

Source: New York Times.

https://www.nytimes.com/1931/01/30/archives/united-states-ap...

Also, record of the apology from the Department of State.

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1931v02/d6...

Sounds like he won a moral victory over the US Government and the Fascists, and then the US Government (ever full of contradictions) later helped depose the actual Fascists through the war he wanted to avoid.

> He was an Anti-Fascist, but wanted to prevent a war with the Fascists

That's rich :) For all intents and purposes you're supporting it, you just like to support it while feeling morally superior.

To anyone just passing through the comments, the Wiki article on Butler is a worthy read. He was an interesting person.

The YouTube series Knowing Better had a very good episode about Butler and this essay too: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=Lg-nUy2DalM

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