Fires in D.C. the Bonus Army (US Vets) lay in smolering ruins, saved the nation from revolution

[Omaha Steve]

I've been busy the last couple days an didn't get this posted Wednesday. We don't treat Vets much better today.

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?history_9_07_28_2010

July 28, 1932 - General Douglas MacArthur, assisted by Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, led troops in burning to the ground a shantytown built near the U.S. Capitol by unemployed veterans. Some 20,000 ex-servicemen had camped out in the capital demanding a veterans’ bonus they had been promised but never received. Many were unemployed due to the Great Depression. Cavalry troops and tanks fired tear gas into the shantytown, routing veterans and their families, then set the buildings ablaze. MacArthur and President Herbert Hoover claimed they had saved the nation from revolution.

Read more about this incident at www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1284687 and www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX89.html

[EmeraldCityGrl]

1. K&R

[Wickerman]

2. Kick

and r.

[SlipperySlope]

3. If only those troops could have been sent to Afghanistan...

If only those veterans could have been redeployed to Afghanistan instead of being discharged, then they never would have had to march on Washington DC in the first place.

[cynatnite]

4. This vet will say she is treated MUCH better than these poor vets were...

There is still a lot of work to do, but improvements have made a huge difference.

It took years just to get the VA to give female vets the same access to care as the males.

It is better.

[Omaha Steve]

5. The Bonus Army only asked for it's promised bonus early during the depression

Oops on the misspelled smoldering in the original title. :-)

We owe the Vets a decent respectable place in our society. That doesn't mean living under a bridge. Thoughts? I know many people are down on the armed forces. By and large most of the Vets deserve our respect.

OS

[never cry wolf]

6. My grandpa was there

2nd Division in the AEF under Pershing. Came home to be a mostly unemployed carpenter in Chicago during the Depression. He went to the bonus march and also actively campaigned for the US Communist Party Presidential candidate.