3 volumes, 1952 -1953.
In the summer of 1932 the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces ordered the U.S. Army into action--to attack the veterans of the U.S. Army. General Douglas MacArthur, Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Major George S. Patton led the mounted soldiers, who wielded billy clubs and tear gas canisters. When it was all over the veterans' shanties and tents lay in smoldering piles. Proud veterans of World War I were driven from the nation's capital. "We were heroes in 1917," said one veteran bitterly, "but we're bums now."
How could President Hoover have been so heartless? This is his explanation in his own words.
First, the background. In the face of the great depression, veterans asked that they be paid their wartime bonus immediately (full payment was scheduled for 1945). They argued that they needed the aid to feed their families during the depression. They also argued that by spending their bonus on cars, appliances, and houses, they would help create jobs and thus lessen the severity of the depression for others. In order to draw attention to their plan, some 15,000 veterans came to Washington and camped out--until they were driven away.
Hoover's explanation is reprinted below. I will only mention in passing that this is Hoover's explanation--many have denied its validity.
The bonus march was in considerable part organized and promoted by the Communists and included a large number of hoodlums and ex-convicts determined to raise a public disturbance. They were frequently addressed by Democratic congressmen seeking to inflame them against me for my opposition to the bonus legislation. They were given financial support by some of the publishers of the sensational press. It was of interest to learn in after years from the Communist confessions that they also had put on a special battery of speakers to help Roosevelt in his campaign, by use of the incident.
When it was evident that no legislation on the bonus would be passed by the Congress, I asked the chairmen of the Congressional committees to appropriate funds to buy tickets home for the legitimate veterans. This was done and some 6,000 availed themselves of its aid, leaving about 5,000 mixed hoodlums, ex-convicts, Communists, and a minority of veterans in Washington.
[Government officials asked marchers to vacate some old government buildings so that renovation work could proceed.] Whereupon more than 1,000 of the disturbers marched from camps outside of the city and made an organized attack upon the police. In the melee Police Commissioner Glassford failed to organize his men. Several were surrounded by the mob and beaten up; two policemen, beaten to the ground, fired to protect their lives and killed two marchers. Many policemen were injured.
...At my direction to Secretary of War Hurley, General Douglas MacArthur was directed to take charge. General Eisenhower (then Colonel) was second in command. Without firing a shot or injuring a single person, they cleaned up the situation.
...The misrepresentation of the bonus incident for political purposes surpassed any similar incident in American history. Not only did Roosevelt use the incident in the 1932 campaign, but Democratic orators also continued to use it for twenty years after, despite all the refutations and proof to the contrary. I was portrayed as a murderer and an enemy of veterans.
