Bonus Army of 1932

WestCanMan · September 1, 2023

This is a crazy story with a bit of everything: segregation, people overcoming segregation, gov't betrayal of vets, gov't lies, the biggest hurricane of the century, a gov't cover-up, the US military being turned on its own veterans and gassing them (tear gas), the attack was led by no less than MacArthur, Eisenhower and Patton, Ernest Hemingway is involved, and it's the craziest story that you likely never heard of before.

Long story short:

-Americans conscripted to fight in WWI made $1-1.25/day (yep, day) while others conscripted to work in factories and farms made up to 10x as much

-Angry vets demanded compensation, were awarded an additional $1-1.25/day, to be paid in 1945.

-During the depression there was a movement to get them paid early, it got passed by Congress but was roundly defeated in the Senate.

-a protest with tens of thousands vets was on hand when it was defeated, many left but over 10K stayed

-the US gov't turned cavalry and tanks on them, gassed them

-Prez Hoover said it was because they were communists

-Patton is outed as a disgraced POS

-a popular song was written about it:

This debacle led to the creation of the GI Bill, loans, etc.

Crazy stuff.

Had you ever heard about this before? My mom never even heard about it until today and she was born in 1942, she has an American grandmother, and she's a huge history buff. She still reads one or two books/week.

Edited September 1, 2023 by WestCanMan