biography
| name: |
Butler, Smedley D(arlington)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1881–1940)
|
| biography:
| Marine officer, born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA. A member of a distinguished Quaker family, he fought insurrectionaries in the Far East, Central America, and the Caribbean for more than 20 years, but missed combat in World War 1. He caused a diplomatic incident in 1931 when he claimed the Italian dictator Mussolini had killed a child in a hit-and-run automobile accident. Passed over for commandant, he retired in October 1931 and became a prominent isolationist spokesman later in the decade. He was known in the Corps as ‘Old Gimlet Eye’. |
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