Smedley Butler

Smedley Butler

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "Maverick Marine", was a senior United States Marine Corps officer who fought in the Philippine–American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Mexican Revolution and World War I. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, Central America, the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in World War I. Butler was, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. By the end of his career, Butler had received 16 medals, five for heroism. He is one of 19 men to receive the Medal of Honor twice, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal (along with Wendell Neville and David Porter) and the Medal of Honor, and the only Marine to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions. In 1933, he became involved in a controversy known as the Business Plot, when he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy industrialists were planning a military coup to overthrow President Franklin D. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Smedley Butler has received more than 2,532,288 page views. His biography is available in 21 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 18 in 2019). Smedley Butler is the 1,332nd most popular military personnel (down from 1,124th in 2019), the 6,002nd most popular biography from United States (down from 5,684th in 2019) and the 94th most popular American Military Personnel.