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Behind the Marines came legions of U.S.
business executives ready not only to sell their goods but also to set
up plantations, drill oil wells, and stake out mining claims. The
Marines returned when called upon to enforce slave-like working
conditions and put down strikes, protests, and rebellions. [17]
Standard Oil. United Fruit. Domino Sugar. Anaconda Copper.
"[I accept responsibility for] active intervention to secure for our
capitalists opportunity for profitable investments." (President William
Howard Taft, 1910) [18]
A reporter described what took place after U.S. troops landed in Haiti
in 1915 to put down a peasant rebellion:
"American marines opened fire with machine guns from airplanes on
defenseless Haitian villages, killing men, women and children in the
open market places for sport." [19]
50,000 Haitians were killed. [20]
General Smedley Butler was one of the most celebrated leaders of these
Marine expeditions. After he retired, he reconsidered his career,
describing it as follows:
"I spent 33 years and 4 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."
"Thus, 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."
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