A beleaguered president, facing an uncertain reelection amid
the worst economic crisis of the century, unleashes the U.S. Army to attack
nonviolent demonstrators protesting the president’s policies in front of the
White House.
If you think I’m talking about Donald Trump’s June 1 use of
federal troops to clear the streets in front of the White House of protesters,
you’d be right. But there was another failed president who also used federals
troops to attack demonstrators. If Trump thinks a “show of force” against
recent protesters—not to mention his threat to send federal troops into states to
quell demonstrations and riots—will get him reelected, he should look back on
how such actions worked for one of his Republican predecessors, Herbert Hoover.
Nineteen thirty-two was an election year. Hoover was beleaguered
by the Great Depression which started in 1929 when the stock market crashed.
The last thing Hoover needed was a horde of ragged protesters setting up shanty
towns in Washington, DC, and calling them “Hoovervilles.”
Promised Bonus for Veterans
The protesters in this case were veterans of the First World
War, then known only as The Great War. In 1924, Congress authorized
compensating war veterans for the wages they lost while serving in the
military. However, this “bonus,” as it was called, would not be paid out until
1945.
As the Depression flung much of the country into poverty,
war veterans began lobbying Congress for an earlier pay out of the bonus.
Congress agreed to provide the veterans half of their bonuses as “loans.” That,
however, was not enough and the veterans began marching toward Washington
demanding the remainder of their bonuses. Thus, began the Bonus March.
The first Bonus Marchers reached D.C. that May and set up
camps along Pennsylvania Avenue and other parts of the city. By summer, the
number of protesters swelled to more than 40,000. Only around 17,000 were
actual veterans; most of the rest were family members of the marchers. Though
the vets fought the war in segregated units, there was no segregation among the
Bonus Marchers. Black and white veterans marched shoulder to shoulder.
On July 28, then Attorney General William Mitchell—in a move
that Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr would repeat nearly 100 years
later—ordered Washington police to disperse the protesters. The veterans
resisted, and two were killed by police. Hoover then ordered the U.S. Army to
clear away the marchers and their Hooverville campsites. The man in charge of
the operation was then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
MacArthur organized a force of 500 infantrymen, 500
cavalrymen, and six tanks backed by some 800 police officers. Leading the
cavalry was Maj. George Patton, Jr. Both men would go on to become WWII
legends. But they had something else in common.
Unusual Army Officers
MacArthur and Patton were both wealthy officers in a time
when the U.S. Army was woefully underfunded and most officers and enlisted men
were little better off than their civilian counterparts. MacArthur was the
scion of Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, Jr., a Civil War hero whose rose to one of
the highest ranks in the Army. Patton was born into a modest family, but
married a wealthy woman and adopted her family’s political views.
MacArthur viewed the veterans as traitors, accusing them of
being communists and saying, “Pacifism and its bedfellow communism are all
around us.” Patton also saw the protesters as “reds” and told his men, “If you
must fire do a good job—a few casualties become martyrs, a large number an
object lesson…”
Among the marchers was Joe T. Angelo, who had been Patton’s
orderly during the war. Angelo received the Distinguish Service Cross for
saving Patton’s life on the battlefield.
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| Bonus Marchers flee Army tear gas. Source: National Archives |
Two veterans died in rout, and dozens more were injured. A
baby also died, apparently asphyxiated by the tear gas.
In the aftermath of the battle, Angelo approached his former
commanding officer whose life he’d once saved. Patton refused to acknowledge
the veteran, saying, “I do not know this man. Take him away and under no
circumstances permit him to return.”
The next day, Hoover’s election opponent, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, read a newspaper account of the attack. He turned to campaign aide, Felix
Frankfurter, and said, “Well, Felix, this will elect me.” FDR went on to win in
a landslide.
Repeating Mistakes
Nearly 100 years after the Bonus March, we are now seeing many
of the same social elements that created that disaster—joblessness, poverty,
and economic and social repression—compounded by a deadly pandemic and the unprecedented
incompetence of Donald Trump and his fellow travelers. Trump blames the violence
of the demonstrations on the today’s “reds,” the anti-fascist Antifa. (In fact,
there is evidence agitators from the misnamed and extremist right-wing Patriot
Movement may be to blame.) Desperate to look in control of the situation—or in
his defense secretary’s words “dominate the battle space”—Trump has and
continues contemplating turning the American Army on the American people.
One can almost hear Joe Biden turning to one of his campaign aides and saying, “Well, this will elect me.”
