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Short answer = yes. There were war profiteers in WWII (there's a popular post-WWII play that features one - my Google-fu is weak today and I can't remember the name of it). Ditto in earlier wars - Lincoln's first Secretary of the Army was, per Lincoln, so corrupt that "he'd try to steal a red-hot stove."

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That would be "All My Sons" by Arthur Miller. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_My_Sons

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First thing I thought of. So common that it was the subject of popular dramatic entertainment. It's capitalism, Jake!

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Prescott Bush, a US Senator & father of George H.W., potus 41, was in the thick of WWII profiteering.

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IIRC, it was les profiteering than trading with Germany until they couldn't.

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Like pre-plague profiteering!

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That Lincoln was one funny sumbitch.

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There's always scumbags but being so securely in charge is relatively new.

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