(actual-attempt-of-fascist-takeover-of-USA)-(1973

234 The Plot to Seize the White House
MacDonald, Bertrand Wolfe, and Sidney Hook were among those who
opposed any strong action against Japan, or any of the other Axis
powers, arguing, "We believe that the first result of another War to
Make the World Safe for Democracy will be the establishment of
virtual fascism in this country."
By now the country was almost evenly divided between isolationists
and those who advocated anti-Fascist alliances. In late
January Roosevelt asked Congress for appropriations to build up the
Army and Navy for "national defense."
Interviewed on February 28, 1938, on a national radio program,
Butler had strong doubts about F.D.R.'s plans:
Now is the time to keep our heads better than we ever kept
them before. . . . We ought to agree on a definition of the word
"national." If it means defense by our Army and Navy of every
dollar and American person anywhere they may happen to be on the
surface of the earth, then, just as sure as I'm standing here, we'll be
fighting a foreign war.
He was asked how long he estimated it would take to train a
man to fight. "Well," he replied, "if you want to send him three
thousand miles away to fight, at least six months' training will be
needed. If he was defending his home, it would take about an hour."
9
On April 9 Butler was called to testify before the Senate Committee on
Naval Affairs on a billion-dollar naval construction bill. Urging defeat
of the bill, he called it unnecessary for the real defense of the United
States. In the event of war, he told the committee, he favored
abandoning Alaska, the Panama Canal, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto
Rico. The Canal, he asserted, could be destroyed by "a handful of
bombs." He also insisted