Hard economic times always incur a certain amount of social dislocation and consequently create opportunities for politically extreme movements. The global economic event that began in 1929, known as the Great Depression, allowed radical movements of the Left and Right to pose a serious threat to public order in many countries, including the United States. While there were no mass American political movements on the scale of the Nazi Party in Germany or the Communist Party in France, the social and political unrest caused by the huge number of unemployed people was a latent threat to the government. There were many instances of state National Guards being temporarily mobilized in response to strikes turned violent and civil disorders. There were fewer but more serious occasions where regular Army troops were called out in aid of the civil power. The worst incident of this type was the Bonus Army March in Washington in the summer of 1932. At the end of World War I, as the American Expeditionary Force was being demobilized, a grateful U.S. government passed legislation that authorized the payment of cash bonuses to war veterans, adjusted for length of service, in 1945. However, the Crash of 1929 wiped out many veterans' savings and jobs, forcing them out into the streets. Groups of veterans began to organize and petition the government to pay them their cash bonus immediately. In the spring of 1932, a group of 300 veterans in Portland, Oregon calling itself the "Bonus Expeditionary Force" or "Bonus Army" began traveling across the country to Washington to lobby the government in person. By the end of May, over 3,000 veterans and their families had made their way to the capital. Most of them lived in a collection of makeshift huts and tents on the mud flats by the Anacostia River outside of the city limits. Similar ghettos could be found sheltering the igrant unemployed and poor outside any large city in the United States and were called "Hoovervilles." By July, almost 25,000 people lived in Anacostia, making it the largest Hooverville in the country. In June, the Patman Bonus Bill, which proposed immediate payment of the veterans' cash bonuses, was debated in the House of Representatives. There was stiff resistance from Republicans loyal to President Hoover, as the estimated cost of the bill was over $2 billion and the Hoover Administration was adamant about maintaining a balanced budget. The bill passed in the House on June 15, but was defeated in the Senate only two days later. In response, almost 20,000 veterans slowly shuffled up and down Pennsylvania Avenue for three days in a protest local newspapers titled the "Death March." As the weather and the rhetoric grew hotter, concern grew that the Bonus Army Marchers could cause widespread civil disorder and violence. There were scuffles with the police and some Senators' cars were stoned by unruly crowds of veterans. Smedley Butler, a retired Marine General who was immensely popular among veterans and had become a vocal opponent of the Hoover Administration, participated in Bonus Army demonstrations and made inflammatory speeches (He would be approached in1933 by Fascist sympathizers in the American Legion, who would try to involve him in a plot to seize power in a coup d'etat.). It was also alleged at the time that the March was directed by the Communist Party, but it has since been established that the Party's only actual involvement was sending a small number of agitators and speakers. Nevertheless, President Hoover considered the Bonus Army Marchers a threat to public order and his personal safety. Contrary to tradition, he did not attend the closing ceremonies for that session of Congress on July 16 and many members left the Capitol building after the ceremonies through underground tunnels to avoid facing the demonstrators outside. Many of the Marchers left Washington after Congress adjourned, but there were still over 10,000 angry, restless veterans in the streets. On July 28th two were shot and killed by panicked policemen during a riot at the bottom of Capitol Hill. This provided the final stimulus. Hoover told Patrick Hurley, the Secretary of War, to tell General Douglas MacArthur, then the Army Chief of Staff, that he wanted the Bonus Army Marchers evicted from Washington. Troops from nearby Forts Myer and Washington were ordered in to remove the Bonus Army Marchers from the streets by force. One battalion from the 12th Infantry Regiment and two squadrons of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment with several light tanks (under the command of Major George S. Patton) concentrated at the Ellipse just west of the White House. Fix Bayonets At 4:00 PM. the infantrymen donned gas masks and fixed bayonets, the cavalry drew sabers, and the whole force moved onto Pennsylvania Avenue to clear it of people. Against the advice of his assistant, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, MacArthur had taken personal command of the operation. President Hoover had ordered MacArthur to clear Pennsylvania Avenue only, but MacArthur immediately began to clear all of downtown Washington, herding the Marchers out and torching their huts and tents. Tear gas was used liberally and many bricks were thrown, but no shots were fired during the entire operation. By 8:00 PM. the downtown area had been cleared and the bridge across the Anacostia River, leading to the Hooverville where most of the Marchers lived, was blocked by several tanks. That evening Hoover sent duplicate orders via two officers to MacArthur forbidding him to cross the Anacostia to clear the Marchers' camp. MacArthur willfully ignored the President's orders, saying that he was "too busy" and "could not be bothered by people coming down and pretending to bring orders." MacArthur crossed the Anacostia at 11PM, routed the marchers along with 600 of their wives and children out of the camp, and burned it to the ground. Then, incredibly, he called a press conference at midnight where he praised Hoover for taking the responsibility for giving the order to clear the camp. He said, "Had the President not acted within 24 hours, he would have been faced with a very grave situation, which would have caused a real battle.... Had he waited another week, I believe the institutions of our government would have been threatened." Patrick Hurley, the Secretary of War, was also present and praised MacArthur for his action in clearing the camp, even though he too was aware that Hoover had given directly contrary orders. Hoover could not publicly disagree with his Chief of Staff and Secretary of War, and in the end took responsibility for MacArthur's actions. (It was this sort of insubordination and manipulation that would lead to MacArthur being summarily relieved of his command of the UN forces in Korea in 1951 by a less tolerant Harry S Truman.) The last of the Bonus Army Marchers left Washington by the end of the following day. When compared with civil disturbances in other countries during that period, the March was a low-key event. The regular Army troops did not fire one shot and only four people were killed (the two demonstrators who had been shot by the police, and two infants asphyxiated by tear gas). However, there was genuine concern that the civil unrest in Washington could have grown into a popular revolution. This threat had been averted, but Hoover ended up paying the political cost of this incident. The forceful eviction of the Marchers tilted public opinion against Hoover. In November Franklin Roosevelt was elected by a landslide that November and, as they say, the rest is history. Back to Cry Havoc #23 Table of Contents Back to Cry Havoc List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by David W. Tschanz. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com