Sounds to me like it was a coup attempt revealed by the guy who was supposed to be leader of the coup. I rate it right up there with comments by Ted Nugent, Donald Trump, and Rachel Maddow---blather.
I did a lot of research into this about 20 years ago, and found it all nonsense then. And nothing I have ever read since then makes it seem any more real.
Most people do not realize, but prior to WWII The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign War were bitter rivals. You could pretty much belong to one, or the other. They were almost like gangs, fighting for members and political influence. Old Gimlet Eye was affiliated with the VFW (he was an officer and popular recruiter for that organization).
He also had multiple failed political ambitions. Including a run for the US Senate, and petitioning to be the first leader of the Oregon State Police (he helped found the organization but the state picked somebody else to lead it).
And the bond salesman was a low-ranking official of the American Legion. And among the testimony was the claim that General Butler was offered the command of the American Legion, and would use that position to effectively control the country after the plot went off. They claimed to have money that they did not, and also claimed to have lots of support, which they did not.
Finally towards the end they tried to convince him to create yet another Veteran's Organization from which to run the plot.
This was all conspiracy hogwash and nonsense. General Butler was in a rapidly declining state of mental and physical health. After the "plot" became known to the public, he stopped almost all public appearances. And less then 5 years later he died of advanced stomach cancer.
There were even Congressional hearings held about this "plot". And even they thought the idea was laughable and nothing more then an attempted confidence game. Smedley Butler was a political general. Son of a prominent Congressman, he owed a lot of his advancement to political favor. And his taking leave of the Marines to accept political offices is what kept him from ultimately becoming Commandant.
