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To: WhiskeyX
“scene of disorder”

I'll grant that such directive is vague and subject to varying interpretations.

Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur chose to reinterpret the orders to encompass far beyond the immediate area in which the D.C. Police were menaced while removing the squatters from the empty Federal buildings.

Think about it. If soldiers formed a moving wall, how do you practically clear the scene of disorder without moving the mob across the river and outside of D.C.? If say you were MacArthur and the mob was centered at the capitol steps, does moving them to the Washington Monument accomplish your orders? Unlikely.

173 posted on 01/13/2014 2:36:27 AM PST by fso301
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To: fso301

You evidently have no idea of where in Washington D.C. these buildings were located which were subject to the eviction orders for the demolition contractors to proceed with their work. The Army was supposed to help the D.C. police force to protect the White House and evict the squatters from the abandoned U.S. treasury buildings in a block nearby the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue, and the Old National Guard Building. The violent confrontation with the D.C. Police involved only about 50 men throwing brickbats, stones, and threatening shootings. Due to an Army intelligence services report about the Communists using the confrontations as an opportunity to subvert the Bonus Army protests toi foment a national revolutionary uprising, MacArthur chose to use this opportunity to eliminate the presence of the Bonus Expeditionary force before the Communists succeeded in instigating more bloody confrontations in a bid to start an armed revolution.


175 posted on 01/13/2014 8:00:22 AM PST by WhiskeyX ( provides a system for registering complaints about unfair broadcasters and the ability to request a)
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