This is a bit of a Work in Progress TL
"Smedley Butler is a controversial figure in American Politics. While he helped revitalise the US from the worst economic disaster in History, he had weakened it abroad, namely in europe enabling Germany, to devastate much of Europe." - Andrew Williamson, Old Gimlet Eye, 1994, Random House Publishing.
Smedley Butler had just resigned from the Marine corps in 1931 out of protest following his refusal to go to Nicaragua as part of an attempt to capture Sandino. He left the War Department building in Foggy Bottom and was a civilian again. He began major speeches protesting against what he saw as corporatism at the expense of the Common man. This won him a large following, especially when America was in the throes of the depression, with tens of millions in a country of over 120 million homeless. Many flocked to his speeches in New York and Washington DC, when eventually in 19 October 1931, someone suggested that he run for President. He knew that no party would accept him as a candidate following his rhetoric that "war is a racket".
He went home to Pennsylvania for a while to think, and decided that he would run as an Independent Candidate. He booked an hour at a radio Station in Philadelphia to make this announcement. The reaction was initially small, but its repercussions would impact upon the United States, and the world. He then used the savings of his time in the military to fund his campaign on a promise of "relief, recovery and prosperity"