Amsterdam
Watched the movie Amsterdam last night. Had no idea what it was about until part way in. For those like me who hadn’t heard of the movie, it is very loosely based on a 1933 plot by a small group of business leaders who idolized Mussolini and wanted to replace the Roosevelt government with a dictator ala Il Duce.
The person they had pegged as Fearless Leader, as I’m sure many of my friends know, was former Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler. Butler went along with it to find out who the men at the top were.
At the end of the film, Butler gives a speech prepared for him by the plotters to fire up a group of veterans to get behind the coup attempt. Instead, he gives a speech exposing the plotters.
He also warns that this will stop them only for two or three decades.
I do not think Butler ever actually said that. I think that was a deliberate nod by the makers of the film to more recent history.
What is three decades after 1933?
1963?
Anything happen then?
I don’t think the film-makers were nodding in the wrong direction.
Government and Military Hawks
The Military Industrial Congressional Complex and it’s intelligence and covert action wings, including CIA, FBI, state police, and all branches of military intelligence
The American Security Council and similar entities, and all of their grass roots orgs including business groups
Veterans orgs, militias, and politicized churches
CAP, ROTC, underground college propaganda and political action groups
Some major media outlets
Navy League
Southern Dem supporters of LBJ
All of the government entities that came under Treasury in the 1940s/50s/60s – specifically but in no particular order – Coast Guard, IRS, FNB, Secret Service.
These government and private groups are where the broth thickened and fermented between 1933 and 1963. That is not to say that all of these groups formed a united front and conspiratorial framework for what happened in the 1960s. They simply enabled smaller plots to flourish. It is always preferrable to brainwash others into doing your dirty work without directly ordering them to do so – and I don’t think any real life examples are necessary to underscore how that plays out.
As for the movie – like the plot it is based on, it flopped. This, despite the stellar cast and the money put into it. It was indeed, an unusually crafted film with style elements ranging from noir to Marvel franchise to Tarantino. I did not think it was as bad as some suggest – while recognizing it could have been so much better. Kudos to the makers just the same for bringing the subject matter into the public arena.
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