The Business Plot (also called The White House Putsch)[1][2] was a political conspiracy in 1933 in the United States to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install a dictator.[1] Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler asserted that wealthy businessmen were plotting to create a fascist veterans' organization with Butler as its leader and use it in a coup d'état to overthrow Roosevelt. In 1934, Butler testified under oath before the United States House of Representatives Special Committee on Un-American Activities (the "McCormack–DicksteinCommittee") on these revelations.[3] No one was prosecuted.
At the time of the incidents, most major news media dismissed the plot, with a New York Times editorial characterizing it as a "gigantic hoax".[4] While historians have questioned whether or not a coup was actually close to execution, most agree that some sort of "wild scheme" was contemplated and discussed.[5][6][7][8]