War Is Still A Racket

Smedley Butler’s classic texts with new commentary by David Swanson

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (1881-1940) from the age of 16 to the age of 50 waged war all over the world for the U.S. Marine Corps. Then he denounced what he’d been doing as a “racket” driven by Wall Street profiteers. Butler’s change of perspective produced probably the most serious and dramatic confession in world history.

His insights have stood the test of time. In fact, much of what he said in 1935 is even more true now. This book republishes Butler’s famous 1935 pamphlet, War Is a Racket, and also a harder to find collection of five articles, also from 1935, giving more depth to Butler’s revelations and his prescriptions for change.

Author and activist David Swanson provides context and builds a case that war remains a racket, defined by Butler as “something that is not what it seems to the majority of people.” Swanson adapts and builds on Butler’s recommendations for addressing this racket as it exists now.

GLOBALLY: This book retails for $27.50 and the equivalent at most online and offline sellers worldwide (Thrift Books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon).

U.S. and UK: It can be had for $17 here.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR WAR IS STILL A RACKET

Smedley Butler's quotes are timeless for those who believe that War is Not the Answer and are just as relevant today as they were when they were made in 1935. Big war corporations still rule U.S. politics and decisions for war. The wars for profit of 2026 are continued evidence of the truth of Smedley Butler's comments.

David Swanson, one of our cherished antiwar voices, frames another cherished voice — Smedley Darlington Butler, a U.S. Marine Corps warrior who finally saw through the slaughter, mayhem, and economic rape of war, dedicating himself to the cause of a real and lasting peace. Swanson brings home Butler’s remarkably courageous stance against nascent fascism and shows us that his rallying cry, War is a Racket, is alive and well in our vicious and turbulent times.

The world is a mess. If the world listened to David Swanson, it would be a much better place.

Swanson brings back to crackling life a semi-forgotten military man named Smedley Butler, who, after a long career in the military, woke up to its profiteering aspect and spent the rest of his life pointing out and denouncing the deep connection between war and and material greed. Swanson points out the many parallels between Butler's era and now, including the sad reality that the situation has only worsened, swelling into the vast military-industrial-lobbyist-media-political complex that is the corrupt backbone of the U.S. economy in 2026, pushing us into unnecessary campaigns like the one in Iran. Swanson's book is a concise and eye-opening documentation of Butler's proselytizing that is all the more convincing because it does not gloss over Butler's participation, before his "conversion," in the mercenary support of dictators and giant corporations , especially in Central and South America, that required military backing to exploit workers and turn handsome profits.

In this essential book, David Swanson teams up with Smedley Butler to make "fog facts"—the little-known or unspeakable truths that make war an everyday part of our lives—the basis for seeing the world clearly so that we can cut through corruption and demand peace.

U.S .Marines General Smedley Butler and World BEYOND War Executive Director David Swanson, following life trajectories that couldn't be more dissimilar, both arrived at a highly comprehensive understanding of what US President Dwight Eisenhower famously termed the military-industrial complex. Butler and Swanson write with a similarly sly (wry and dry) sense of humor. Perhaps Butler won't convince you that American warfare following the end of the War To End All Wars was a racket. And perhaps Swanson's carefully crafted argument that modern American warfare is still a racket, won't convince you either. Possibly you don't believe that there are wealthy and powerful people, as well as poor and mean people, among us, who think that greed, deceit and murder are good.

Who was Smedley Butler? I thought I was aware of Butler’s bloody history as a "gangster for capitalism." I already appreciated his stinging denunciations of war profiteers. But, David Swanson’s commentary helps us reckon with another deplorable system which Butler himself failed to denounce. Swanson shows how Butler’s military exploits delivered the U.S. racist apartheid system to Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, Mexico, and Beijing. Evaluating the audacity of Smedley Butler’s abusive militarism and racism helps us fess up to our own complicity with contemporary genocide, war crimes, and apartheid systems while agreeing with Butler’s profound acknowledgment that, yes, War Is Still a Racket.

“Our entire doctrine of war must be restated as a defensive doctrine in theory and adhered to in practice.” Major General Smedley D. Butler, US Marines, Retired wrote in 1935. What a wonderful idea! David Swanson illuminates Smedley’s many cogent antiwar arguments, and adds a number of his own. While doing so, Swanson provides a sympathetic portrait of a complex, and far from perfect character—a general who forcefully denounces war in numerous articles after he had led soldiers into imperial battles on foreign soil. This is a fascinating, thought-provoking, quirky, and necessary book—one that should be widely discussed.

Swanson hits a home run: well researched and readable. Smedley Butler owned up to his racketeering abroad for the Wall Street wealthy. He also strongly opposed using the U.S. military at home for similar purpose. He denounced using the National Guard to "coordinate striking workers behind barbed wire concentration camps in Georgia" and for "spying on activists." Those in power today will be tempted to use the Guard, ICE, and military to "coordinate" those trying to ensure free elections. We need to be alert for that and resist."

The portrait of Smedley Butler on the cover is by Robert Shetterly and is part of his series Americans Who Tell the Truth. See: americanswhotellthetruth.org.