It can be. I never heard his name until 2 days ago, and I'm in my early 40s. I tried to be broad in my understanding of history, I was in the military for a decade, and I spent a significant amount of time down the conspiracy rabbit hole. And I was still an ignorant wretch. Amazing how millionaires can suppress history.
T, you should check out bad ass of the week. I'm not into gaming, ditto on comics, some of his facts are wildly wrong, it never gets updated, tons of typos, but it's some very fun reading. He's also "massively" into Vikings. No, not the show. EDIT: Hahahaha. http://badassoftheweek.com/index.cgi?id=17100126367
Marine Corps boot camp still (or did when I went through in 84) boasts of his escapades. He was right about "war is a racket". There are dozens of real war hero's, no one has heard of. Chesty Puller, Dan Daily, Archibald Henderson.
I've been reading a lot about WWI lately,because of the Centennial. It just reinforces what I always thought - we really didn't learn a thing in school. And I went to "good" schools, and loved history.
He once became drunk and was temporarily relieved of command after an unspecified incident in his room.
^ Curious, I checked on this. Seems that Butler upset the diplomatic apple cart by giving a speech at the behest of a history professor at Swathmore College in which he referred to Italian Premiere Benito Mussolini as "one of those embryo fellows waiting to start another war" and then took it a step further by insinuating that Mussolini was a child killer -- this back in '31 before Il Duce was on everyone's shit list (ref: pix at bottom). Butler's "kid killer" reference had to do with a story that Butler's friend told him. His friend accompanied Mussolini on a motor tour of Italy and during the trip Mussolini allegedly struck a kid killing him yet kept driving on remarking "what's one life in the affairs of a State?" Word of the Butler's speech at Swathmore got back to the Italian embassy, all hell broke loose with President Hoover (who hated Smedley Butler) ordering Sec. Adams to court martial Butler. Long story short: Adams requested an explanation (and apology) in writing that eventually squashed Butler's court martial. "General Smedley Darlington Butler: The Letters of a Leatherneck, 1898-1931" (pg. 306-307) https://books.google.com/books?id=iweky34VbOcC&pg=PA308&lpg=PA308&dq=what+was+the+incident+that+smedley+butler+relieved+of+command?&source=bl&ots=xLlzZrqBTW&sig=sAeGehAvPiU6Aq7x5SOjmHNj_UA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDtvmVnvzTAhUmrlQKHQbACPEQ6AEIPDAF#v=onepage&q=what was the incident that smedley butler relieved of command?&f=false edit: the corporate elites (inc. Goodyear Tire) actually wanted to hire Butler to lead a group of 500k to opposed FDR. Nowadays *as multi-nationals* the gazillionaires can treat individual 'state' gov't's as small potatoes..
