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.jpg) 1935 cover from the first printing | |
| Author | Smedley D. Butler (Major general (Ret.), USMC) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | |
| Publisher | Round Table Press |
Publication date | 1935 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 51 (first edition) |
| ISBN | 9780922915866 |
| OCLC | 3015073 |
| 172.4 | |
| LC Class | HB195 .B8 |
| [1] | |
War Is a Racket is a speech and a 1935 short book by Smedley D. Butler, a retired United States Marine Corps major general and two-time Medal of Honor recipient.[2][3] Based on his career military experience, Butler discusses how business interests commercially benefit from warfare. He had been appointed commanding officer of the Gendarmerie during the 1915–1934 United States occupation of Haiti.
After Butler retired from the US Marine Corps in October 1931, he made a nationwide tour in the early 1930s giving his speech "War Is a Racket". The speech was so well received that he wrote a longer version as a short book published in 1935. His work was condensed in Reader's Digest as a book supplement, which helped popularize his message. In an introduction to the Reader's Digest version, Lowell Thomas, who wrote Butler's oral autobiography, praised Butler's "moral as well as physical courage".[4]
- ^ "Item Information – War Is a Racket". United States Library of Congress. Retrieved 1 July 2018.
- ^ "Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC (Deceased)". Who's Who in Marine Corps History. History Division, United States Marine Corps. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
- ^ "Smedley Darlington Butler". Hall of Valor. Military Times. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
- ^ Thomas, Lowell (1933). Old Gimlet Eye: Adventures of Smedley D. Butler. Farrar & Rinehart.