90th Anniv. 1932 Bonus Army March By Vets, Major Protest In US History, Portland to Wash., DC

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sun Jul 26, 2020, 11:10 PM - Edit history (1)

'Remembering the Bonus Army Protest of 1932.' Today we have a confluence of factors that has provided an unparalleled opportunity to replicate the Bonus Army's action in the nation's capital. By Gary Olson, Common Dreams, July 26, 2020.

July 28 will mark almost the 90th anniversary of one of most controversial protests in U.S. history and yet it remains virtually unknown to most Americans. On that day in 1932, 500 U.S. army infantrymen with loaded rifles, fixed bayonets, and gas grenades containing a vomit-inducing ingredient, 200 cavalry, a machine gun squadron, 800 police, and six M1917 army tanks prepared to attack 17,000 unarmed men, plus thousands of their wives and children. Moments before the assault, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, in charge of the operation, turned to a police official standing next to him and said, "I will break the back of the enemy."

The attack was ordered by President Herbert Hoover and commanded by Gen. MacArthur. Dwight D. Eisenhower was MacArthur's aide and Major George S. Patton led the tank unit. After donning gas masks, the army tossed hundreds of tear-gas grenades into the encampment which started raging fires and the assault drove all the bedraggled occupants from the area. The encampment was then burned to the ground. This wasn't Cuba, the Philippines, or the Mexican border—but in Washington, D.C. The camp, nicknamed "Hooverville," occupied by WWI veterans who were living in tents and shanties others living in crumbling government buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue near the Capitol. If your education was anything like mine, there wasn't any mention of this event in any history class.

Some four million vets had returned from the war and found that others had taken their jobs at a considerably higher wage than the $1 per day soldier's pay and expected more help from their government. Presidents Wilson, Harding, and Coolidge each firmly opposed making any to payments to the mostly unemployed vets, with Coolidge stating that "patriotism, bought and paid for, is not patriotism." In 1924, Congress kicked the can down the road by promising a bonus payment of $1.25 for each day of overseas service and $1.00 for every day of home service. There would be a limit of $625 for overseas service and $500 for home service. But the catch-22 was that it could not be redeemed until 1945. The vets quickly dubbed it the "Tombstone Bonus" because many of them would be dead before collecting.

With the Great Depression deepening, demands for making an immediate payment were escalating. Finally, a bill was passed, but President Hoover vetoed it. In response, some 300 veterans, led by ex-sergeant Walter Waters, boarded a freight train in Portland, Oregon in early May 1932 and headed for Washington, D.C. Soon, others began their pilgrimage to the capital from across the country in dilapidated buses and overcrowded pick-up trucks, and by walking and hitchhiking. The vets and their families were in desperate financial shape with overdue bills to pay, hunger, and evictions hanging over their heads. They demanded immediate payment of the bonus...

Read More, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/07/26/remembering-bonus-army-protest-1932

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/bonus-marchers-evicted-by-u-s-army

- The speaker addressing the crowd of veterans is US Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, the highly regarded retired officer who was later approached by backers to support The Business Plot conspiracy to overthrow new President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Butler declined the offer and testified to Congress about the planned coup d'etat in 1934.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot#:~:text=On%20July%2017%2C%201932%2C%20thousands,and%20no%20later%20than%201945).

[3Hotdogs]

1. The Business Plot conspiracy. Funny. There were a couple of articles about it in the N.Y. Times.

After that, nothing was ever printed about it.

Pappy Bush's father Senator Prescott Bush was one of the leaders of the attempted coup. But no firing squad for him as payment for his attempted treason.

[appalachiablue]

2. It was quickly covered over, dismissed. But not forgot by FDR,

I've read he held onto it, you know, just in case. Brilliant politician and leader. In 1933 Germany got Hitler, and we got FDR thank god.

[electric_blue68]

3. I remember hearing about this!

Not in school I don't think so, still since I was at a more liberal HS it's not impossible. At least a blip about Hoovervilles.

However we were busy making our own history as Anti-Vietnam And War students in HS, among other things!

I most likely heard it (and/or weaaay more about it) from liberal talk radio hosts - ?30+ yrs later. Thom Hartman, and Randy Rhoads come to mind.

[appalachiablue]

4. I never knew about the Bonus Army, the 'Business Plot'

and Smedley Butler until about 8 years ago. Several videos online look like History Channel type programs from the 90s but I wasn't a big TV watcher during busy career years.