Devil Dog: The Amazing True Story of the Man Who Saved America Book

Sharply written, vividly illustrated with newspaper clippings and occasionally NSFW comic pages and wearing it's opinion on it's sleeve, this is a beautiful little biography of one of America's forgotten heroes. Smedley Butler was a two-time Medal of Honor winner and Marine General who served in the Spanish American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the banana wars of the early 20th Century and finally World War I. After the war, he came to regret a lot of what he'd done:

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class thug for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. 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. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents"