The Day the U.S. Army Attacked WWI Veterans

Occupy Washington July 1932.

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I personally do not advocate any process or procedure contained in any of my Blogs. Information presented here is not intended to provide legal or lawful advice, nor medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, cure, or prevent any disease. Views expressed are for educational purposes only.

Fifty-five veterans injured and 135 arrested

Nov 30, 2011

(SALEM) - The police attacks on U.S. War Veterans taking part in the Occupy protests, are not a new phenomenon in America; in fact there is quite a history of both police and military waging attacks on unarmed U.S. citizens in this country.

In the 20th Century, violence was first carried out against World War One Vets and their families and supporters, during the Depression, in 1932.

It is an ugly period in history and the players were then President Herbert Hoover, U.S. Attorney General William D. Mitchell, and senior Army officers Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton.

The Bonus Army

Wikipedia explains that a large number of the war veterans were living in poverty and unable to find work as was the fate of so many Americans surviving during the Great Depression.

The World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 awarded the veterans bonuses in the form of certificates, however those were not redeemable until 1945 and many of the Vets knew they would likely not live to see 1945. The certificates, issued to war veteran who qualified, had a face value equal to the soldier's promised payment plus compound interest.

The Bonus Army's primary demand, was the immediate cash payment of their certificates. Wright Patman, who was elected to the House of Representatives in Texas's 1st congressional district in 1928, introduced a bill that would have mandated the immediate payment of the bonus to World War I veterans in 1932.

This bill is the reason that the Bonus Army came to Washington.

Marine Gen Smedley Butler

The superstar who came to support the movement was one of, if not the finest military leader in the history of the United States. Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler is the two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner who criticized what we today call the military, industrial complex and he is known in popular culture for the famous speech, 'War is a Racket'.

He encouraged the demonstrators to hold their ground and publicly backed the effort, in person.

The Bonus Army represented the entire country.

Washington police encountered resistance, and opened fire on the veterans and their supporters, leaving two former World War One soldiers, William Hushka and Eric Carlson, with mortal wounds that they would soon succumb to.

Upon hearing of this shooting, U.S. President Herbert Hoover sent in the U.S. Army to clear the veterans' campsite. Commanding infantry and cavalry units and a half dozen tanks, soldiers under the command of Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur, attacked the Bonus Army marchers, driving them out along with their wives and children.

After the cavalry charged, the infantry, with fixed bayonets and adamsite gas, an arsenical vomiting agent, entered the camps, evicting veterans, families, and camp followers. The veterans fled across the Anacostia River to their largest camp and President Hoover ordered the assault stopped.

However Gen. MacArthur, feeling the Bonus March was a "Communist" attempt to overthrow the U.S. government, ignored the President and ordered a new attack. Read more at http://www.salem-news.com/articles/november302011/occupy-1933.php

Bonus Expeditionary Forces March on Washington

In the years after World War I, a long battle over providing a bonus payment to WWI veterans raged between Congress and the White House. Presidents Harding and Coolidge both vetoed early attempts to provide a bonus to WWI veterans. Congress overrode Coolidge’s veto in 1926, passing the World War Adjusted Compensation Act, otherwise known as the Bonus Act.

The act promised WWI veterans a bonus based on length of service between April 5, 1917 and July 1, 1919; $1 per day stateside and $1.25 per day overseas, with the payout capped at $500 for stateside veterans and $625* for overseas veterans. The catch was this bonus would not pay out until each veteran’s birthday in 1945, paying out to his estate if he should die before then. Although veterans were allowed to borrow against the bonus certificate beginning in 1927, by 1932, banks were short on credit to give.

The Bonus Expeditionary Forces camp on Anacostia Flats, Washington, DC. Library of Congress (LC-DIG-hec-36887)

In May 1932, jobless WWI veterans organized a group called the “Bonus Expeditionary Forces” (BEF) to march on Washington, DC. Suffering and desperate, the BEF’s goal was to get the bonus payment now, when they really needed the money. Led by Walter W. Walters, the veterans set up camps and occupied buildings in various locations in Washington, D.C. Read more at

https://www.nps.gov/articles/bonus-expeditionary-forces-march-on-washington.htm

Bonus Army Riots in Washington, D.C., July 1932

Creator(s): Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer. 9/18/1947-2/28/1964 (Most Recent) Series: Historical Films, ca. 1914 - ca. 1936 Record Group 111: Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860 - 1985.

Production Date: 1936
Scope & Content: Part 1 (Signal Corps), D.C. policemen drag veterans from a Pennsylvania Ave. warehouse and load them on trucks. Cavalry and tank units patrol the city. Part 2 (Universal Newspaper Newsreel), cavalry and tank units patrol. Shacks used by the Bonus Army are burned. Veterans are routed by tear gas. Part 3 (Paramount News) shows Bonus Army camp facilities at Johnstown, Pa., established after the eviction from Washington, D.C.

05:30 mins

Video on Twitter/X

06:53 mins https://twitter.com/i/status/1755073741774544970

Revelations

The close of one world age and beginning of a new era is not a clean break. There's a buffer, a 36 year transition time of 18 years before 2012 and 18 years after, which is 2030. Learn more at
https://www.ourgreaterdestiny.ca/p/the-shift-of-world-ages-2030-and

Without prejudice and without recourse
Doreen Agostino
Our Greater Destiny Blog
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