General Smedley Butler

Speaking of brutal Nicaraguan dictator Somoza, Harry Truman is  supposed to have said “He’s a bastard, but he’s our bastard.” This quote  is attributed to Truman, FDR, and Nixon. This is a broad chronological  range, because there were actually three Somozas: Anastasio Somoza  Garcia, who fathered Luis Somoza Debayle and Anastasio Somoza Debayle,   the Somoza dynasty that ruled Nicaragua from the mid 1930s through the  late 1970s.

The Marines invaded Nicaragua in 1912 and stayed until 1933, fighting  but never defeating the revolutionary Augusto Sandino. They created the  Nicaraguan National Guard and installed Anastasio Somoza Garcia in  power. Then Sandino, who had signed a truce and put down his arms, was  assassinated by Somoza. In 1935, General Smedley Butler, who led the Marines into Nicaragua, said:

“[I was] a high class muscle man  for big business, for Wall Street and for the banks. In short, I was a  racketeer for capitalism – I helped purify Nicaragua for [an]  international banking house.”