The Bonus Army : an American epic

Author / Creator

Dickson, Paul

Available as

Physical

Summary

"In the Depression summer of 1932, some 45,000 veterans of World War I descended on Washington to demand the bonus promised them eight years earlier for their wartime service. They lived in shantyt...

"In the Depression summer of 1932, some 45,000 veterans of World War I descended on Washington to demand the bonus promised them eight years earlier for their wartime service. They lived in shantytowns, white and black together, and for two months they rallied peacefully for their cause-- an action that would have a profound effect on American history. Despite their efforts, the bonus bill was defeated in the Senate after passage in the House. President Herbert Hoover, Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur, and others, fearing the veterans were controlled by Communists and would turn violent, decided they had to be removed from their bivouac near the Capitol. On July 28, 1932, going beyond presidential orders, MacArthur drove the veterans out of the city with tanks, tear gas, and soldiers wielding bayonet-tipped rifles. Upon reading newspaper accounts of the eviction, Democratic candidate Franklin D. Rossevelt, in a critical contest with Hoover for the presidency, said to an advisor, "This will elect me". Yet Roosevelt proved even more determined than Hoover not to pay the bonus, and bonus armies returned in the first three years of his administration. Seeking a solution, Roosevelt sent many to work camps in Florida, where, on Labor Day, 1935, the worst hurricane ever to strike the United States killed some 250 unprotected vets, prompting a New Deal whitewash and cover-up of the facts"--From book cover.

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