Butler, Smedley D.

Butler, Smedley D. (Darlington) (1881–1940) marine officer; born in West Chester, Pa. 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 I. 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."