From "War Is A Racket," the 1935 anti-war classic by Smedley Butler:

"War is a racket… I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and 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 benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might 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."

Smedley Darlington Butler (1881-1940) was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and the most decorated Marine in U.S. history at the time of his death.

In 1934, he informed the U.S. Congress that a group of American Fascist industrialists had plotted a military coup to overthrow President Franklin D. Roosevelt. (See also: "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis.) Post-plot, and its exposure, the American news media suppressed the details and many of the names of those involved.