The March of the Bonus Army
By Tom Morrow
The burning of Washington, D.C.,
by the British Army during the War of 1812, was not the only time our nation’s
capital city was invaded.
An invasion of sorts happened the spring and summer of 1932, when some
17,000 World War I veterans marched on the city, demanding a cash redemption of
their bonus certificates, which had been issued to World War I veterans.With their families, a total of
43,000 set up a make-shift encampments of tents and temporary shacks, resolving
not to leave until the government made good on a 1924 “World War Adjusted
Compensation Act.” The money wasn’t supposed to be paid until 1945, but
crushing economic pressures of the Great Depression pushed the out-of-work
veterans to demand the money early.
Organizers called it the “Bonus
Expeditionary Force Marchers,” but the media called it the “Bonus Army.”
The U.S. Attorney General ordered the veterans removed from all government
property. When the veterans resisted, shots were fired and two were killed.
President Herbert Hoover then
ordered the Army to clear the veterans' campsite.
The Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commanded
the infantry and cavalry units, which was supported by six tanks. The tanks
were commanded by Maj. George S. Patton. The Bonus Marchers, believing the
troops were marching in their honor, cheered the troops until Patton
ordered the cavalry to charge them, an action which prompted the
spectators to yell, "Shame! Shame!"
The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and
their shelters burned. The veterans fled across the Anacostia River
to their largest camp, known as “Hooverville,” when President Hoover ordered the
assault stopped. However MacArthur, feeling the Bonus March was an attempt to
overthrow the U.S.
government, ignored the President and ordered a new attack. Fifty-five veterans
were injured and 135 arrested.
Maj. Dwight D. Eisenhower, later our 34th President, served as one of
MacArthur's junior aides. Believing it wrong for the Army's
highest-ranking officer to lead an action against fellow veterans, Ike strongly
advised MacArthur against taking any public role: "I told that dumb
son-of-a-bitch not to go down there," he said later.
A decorated veteran from the war, who had saved Patton's life during the
war, approached him the day after the Army’s action to sway him. Rather than
listen to the man whom Patton had personally decorated for his bravery under
fire, was coldly rejected, saying "I do not know this man.”
The Bonus Army incident proved disastrous for Hoover's chances at re-election; he lost the
1932 election in a landslide to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In May 1933, a second
demonstration was organized. Roosevelt provided the marchers with a campsite in
Virginia,
with three meals a day. Roosevelt arranged for
his wife Eleanor to visit the site unaccompanied, but the most she could offer
was a promise of jobs in the newly created Civilian Conservation Corps. One veteran commented:
"Hoover sent the army, Roosevelt
sent his wife."
In 1936, at the height of the
Depression, Congress overrode President Roosevelt's veto
and paid the veterans their bonus nine years ahead of time.
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