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WWI Veterans marched on Washington for promised payment in 1932

"Bonus Marchers" and police battle in Washington, D.C. The marchers came to Washington, D.C., to demand their veterans "bonus" payment early from Congress. After several months of camping near the Anacostia River and after several confrontations with police, federal troops drove the marchers from the city. Photo by an unknown Associated Press photographer, July 1932. Photo and caption courtesy of the National Archives Collection.

Did you know that the U.S. Government dispatched 3,500 Army troops onto Washington D.C. streets under leadership of General Douglas MacArthur to drive off an assembled ‘army’ of WWI Veteran demonstrators?

It began with 400 veterans who assembled in Portland, OR by May 17, 1932, intent on marching on the nation’s capital to rally support for early payment of the promised Service Bonus (also known as the Tombstone Bonus) for WWI servicemen, promised to be paid in 1945. By June, approximately 1,500 men had assembled to demand the payment early to offset hardship of the Great Depression, which had begun in 1929. 

On July 28 after failed attempts to dissuade the veterans from continuing to gather, and with some 10-20 thousand WWI veterans assembled (amid a total group more than twice that size) within central Washington, President Hoover sent in the Army and police to expel the marchers. Both General MacArthur and George Patton took part in efforts to drive off the many veterans from shanty towns and camps that were spread across many blocks, and the troops were instructed to use both tear gas and bayonets to drive away the demonstrators. The camps were lit with torches as an additional inducement. 

The camp established at 3rd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue was run over by five tanks with mounted machine guns atop. 

Four years later, in 1936, the veterans were paid their bonus, nine years early, when Congress overrode President Franklin Roosevelt’s veto. 

Reference: National Park Service - https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-1932-bonus-army.htm

Reference: National Archives - https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2020/07/15/the-1932-bonus-army-black-and-white-americans-unite-in-march-on-washington/