[dpa5923]

Smedley Butler, who later became Commandant of the Marine Corps

Although a highly decorated Marine Officer (twice awarded the MOH) and in charge of the "War on Booze" for the city of Philadelphia in the 1920's, Gen Butler was never a Marine Corps Commandant.

 

COMMANDANTS OF THE MARINE CORPS
1st Commandant	Samuel Nicholas	28 Nov 1775 -- August 1783
2d Commandant	William Ward Burrows	12 Jul   1798 --  6 Mar 1804
3d Commandant	Franklin Wharton	7 Mar 1804 --  1 Sep 1818
4th Commandant	Anthony Gale	3 Mar 1819 -- 8 Oct 1820
5th Commandant	Archibald Henderson	17 Oct 1820 --  6 Jan 1859
6th Commandant	John Harris	7 Jan 1859 -- 1 May 1864
7th Commandant	Jacob Zeilin	10 Jun 1864 -- 31 Oct 1876
8th Commandant	Charles Grymes McCawley	1 Nov 1876 -- 29 Jan 1891
9th Commandant	Charles Heywood	30 Jun 1891 --  2 Oct 1903
10th Commandant	George Frank Elliott	3 Oct   1903 -- 30 Nov 1910
11th Commandant	William Phillips Biddle	3 Feb 1911 -- 24 Feb 1914
12th Commandant	George Barnett	25 Feb 1914 -- 30 Jun 1920
13th Commandant	John Archer Lejeune	1 Jul  1920 --  4 Mar 1929
14th Commandant	Wendell Cushing Neville	5 Mar 1929 --  8 Jul 1930
15th Commandant	Ben Hebard Fuller	9 Jul 1930 -- 28 Feb 1934
16th Commandant	John Henry Russell, Jr.	1 Mar 1934 -- 30 Nov 1936
17th Commandant	Thomas Holcomb	1 Dec 1936 -- 31 Dec 1943
18th Commandant	Alexander Archer Vandegrift	1 Jan 1944 -- 31 Dec 1947
19th Commandant	Clifton Bledsoe Cates	1 Jan 1948 -- 31 Dec 1951
20th Commandant	Lemuel Cornick Shepherd, Jr.	1 Jan 1952 -- 31 Dec 1955
21st Commandant	Randolph McCall Pate	1 Jan 1956 -- 31 Dec 1959
22d Commandant	David Monroe Shoup	1 Jan 1960 -- 31 Dec 1963
23d Commandant	Wallace Martin Greene, Jr.	1 Jan 1964 -- 31 Dec 1967
24th Commandant	Leonard Fielding Chapman, Jr.	1 Jan 1968 -- 31 Dec 1971
25th Commandant	Robert Everton Cushman, Jr.	1 Jan 1972 -- 30 Jun 1975
26th Commandant	Louis Hugh Wilson	1 Jul 1975 -- 30 Jun 1979
27th Commandant	Robert Hilliard Barrow	1 Jul 1979 -- 30 Jun 1983
28th Commandant	Paul Xavier Kelley	1 Jul 1983 -- 30 Jun 1987
29th Commandant	Alfred Mason Gray, Jr.	1 Jul 1987 -- 30 Jun 1991
30th Commandant	Carl Epting Mundy, Jr.	1 Jul 1991 -- 30 Jun 1995
31st Commandant	Charles Chandler Krulak	1 Jul 1995 -- 30 Jun 1999
32d Commandant	James Logan Jones	1 Jul 1999 -- Present

[AFPhys]

Gen Butler was never a Marine Corps Commandant.

Say it ain't true! You mean a pure LIbEral, of the party of "conservative Catholic" Pelosi and 'Toon, did not tell us the whole unvarnished truth? Indeed, even deliberately distorted or made up facts???

You've shattttttered my whole world view... I'll have to go talk to my university professor and find out how I should think about this.

[rmlew]

Butler retired as a Brigadier General. He was never promoted to Commandant, one of the reasons why he quit.
After retiring, the uneducated Quaker first ran for the US Senate as a Republican, but became a socialist.
Frankly, he pulled a McCain and became a usefull idiot for the Stalinist left. Butler opposed rearmeament up to his death in 1940.
He spouted about the reasons for US policy, even though he had no role in setting them.

Max Boot did a good job of explaining this in The Savage Wars of Peace. (Frankly, I think all paleocons should be forced to read this, just as all neocons should read Buchanan's A Republic not an Empire.)