The Anti-War Marine

On June 21, 1940, Smedley Butler, American Marine General and two time Medal of Honor recipient (three if one were to count the Marine Brevet Medal which is above the Navy Cross in order of precedence, died at the age of 58. An excerpt from the article:

"It is both truism and cliché that “no one hates war more than the soldiers who fight.” Many historians have demonstrated that political causes are often quickly discarded among the mud, bullets, and blood of war. Even commanders that have led great armies on important crusades have often stated their desire for peace over war. Ulysses S. Grant campaigned for the presidency in 1868 on the slogan “Let Us Have Peace.” Another warrior-president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, once requested that a statue depict him in civilian clothes instead of his Army uniform because he wanted to be remembered as a man of peace, not war. However, few military veterans have tried to distance themselves from war as drastically as Major General Smedley Darlington Butler.

Born near Philadelphia in 1881, Butler left school at age sixteen to join the United States Marine Corps during the Spanish-American War. Over the next thirty-three years, he fought in nearly every conflict in which the United States was engaged, including the Philippine-American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the so-called “Banana Wars,” the Mexican Revolution, and World War I. He is one of just nineteen Americans to receive the Medal of Honor for valor in action twice. He retired in 1933 as a major general, then the highest rank authorized for Marines. Smedley Butler, however, did not go gently into that good night."