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Retired Marine general Smedley D. Butler addressing a crowd of 6,000 at an anti-war demonstration on Reyburn Plaza, Philadelphia, PA., November 9, 1935.
Credit: Image donated by Corbis-Bettmann
Convinced that American corporations manipulated American foreign policy and wars for their own gain, retired Marine general Smedley Darlington Butler, a native of Chester County PA, became a devout isolationist. At Reyburn Square he insisted "That the government pay business and commercial interests not to trade with warring nations."