The 1932 Bonus Army March: When the US Army Attacked Its Own Veterans

In 1932, during the Great Depression, thousands of unemployed World War I veterans marched on Washington DC to demand early payment of bonuses promised by the World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924. Led by Walter Waters, the so-called Bonus Army established camps, notably Camp Marks in Anacostia Flats, which were well-organized but lacked basic amenities. The presence of communist infiltrators from the Workers Ex-Service Men's League, led by John Pace, alarmed the Hoover Administration. President Herbert Hoover ordered General Douglas MacArthur to clear the camps. MacArthur, ignoring orders to halt at the Anacostia River, led 800 soldiers and 800 police, including cavalry and tanks, in an assault that dispersed the marchers and destroyed their camps. Major George Patton encountered a veteran who had saved his life in WWI but ordered him away. The violent crackdown, captured in photographs, outraged the public and contributed to Hoover's landslide defeat by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 election. Roosevelt's response to a subsequent veterans' march in 1933 was markedly different, with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt meeting marchers with food and music. The legacy of the Bonus Army influenced the creation of the GI Bill in 1944, which provided generous benefits to WWII veterans, including tuition payments, loan guarantees, and unemployment support, though Black and Hispanic veterans often faced discrimination in accessing these benefits.