I always tell my history students -
"Those that fail to study history are doomed to repeat it"
It looks like the leasons of the "Bones Army" Marches of 1932 are not alive and well in the Bush Administration. Sad. Because if the day returns of another "Bonus Army", the Republicans are in for some very lonely decades.
For those of you that are unaware of what the "Bonus Army" Marches are, here is some
backgroud.
Mostly forgotten today, the Bonus March incident of 1932 provided one of the more instructive lessons in the naked power of the State and just how meaningless the State views its laws and contracts with citizens.
Returning doughboys from President Wilson's World War One had been voted a "bonus" in 1924, basically a government bond with payment due in 1945.
Many of those same veterans were numbered among the victims of the depression. Industry had secured its own "bonus" through passage of the infamous Hawley-Smoot Tariff and the hard-pressed ex-doughboys wanted one as well. Not in far off 1945, but then, when they needed it. A populist movement of the former soldiers developed to demand premature payment of the deferred bonus voted by Congress.
They called themselves the Bonus Army.
The Bonus Army movement was widespread and thoroughly lambasted by the powers-that-be of the time. President Herbert Hoover viewed them as a mixture of "hoodlums, ex-convicts and Communists" with a sprinkling of veterans as mere leavening. The movement alarmed the leaders of the nation's military who were afraid that the insurrection could spread into the enlisted ranks of the standing armed forces. Government secret police under the command of J. Edgar Hoover investigated and attempted penetration of the diverse group as well, a pattern repeated through the history of that august organization.
Their efforts were akin to an attempt to stop the wind. Bonus protests were nationwide and culminated in a massive march on Washington, DC, by tens of thousands of disgruntled veterans. At this troubled point in history, a revolution by the masses of unemployed was one of the worst fears of the political masters of the United States. Depression riots had already erupted in many large Northeastern cities. The sight of thousands of angry citizens openly defying the State at the very fountainhead of its power was terrifying.
By the end of June, the marchers numbered more than 20,000 men, women and children. The Bonus Army was tired, hungry and defiant and the State was fearful of revolution. The nation watched in horror, not knowing what the culmination of events would be. A blowup was inevitable.
The House of Representatives had passed the Patman bill for veterans relief on June 15, despite promise of a presidential veto. But on June 17 the bill met defeat in the Senate, and shortly thereafter orders were given to begin active measures to disperse the marchers. President Hoover ordered the Secretary of War to "surround the affected area and clear it without delay."
Army Chief of Staff MacArthur was convinced that "the movement was actually far deeper and more dangerous than an effort to secure funds from a nearly depleted federal treasury" and in fact, was a communist-led attempt to overthrow the government.
Assisted by his aides Major Dwight D. Eisenhower and Major George S. Patton, Jr , MacArthur led Army troops and cavalry in an advance on veterans marching on Pennsylvania Avenue, with tear gas, naked bayonets and swords drawn. Hundreds were injured and a baby was killed by gas.
Fearful that the State might look too oppressive, Secretary of War Hurley sent orders to MacArthur, containing President Hoover's direct command that he did not wish the Army to pursue the Bonus Marchers across Anacostia River into their main encampment, which had been caustically named "Hooverville" by its residents.
MacArthur saying that he was "too busy," and did not want to be "bothered by people coming down and pretending to bring orders," ignored the presidential commands and led troops into "Hooverville" anyway. They burned it to the ground, injuring hundreds more and driving the remainder of veterans from the nation's capital. The Bonus Army was crushed and the movement dead.
We will never know the true death toll from the violent military suppression of the Bonus Marchers. While immediate deaths were only a handful, injuries were high and the marchers were massively dispersed to many different areas of the country. This was a time when medical care was crude by today's standards and before the advent of antibiotics. Pneumonia and infections were often a death sentence. The butcher's bill from the aftermath of the attack was undoubtedly not minimal.
So as Sean Gonsalves has asked in his columns. Does the Bush Administration truly support today's troops or anyone that has given to this country?
Bush supporters stick magnetic ribbons to their vehicles saying "Support the Troops". But do they know that their fearless leader and his hacks don't show that support with there actions? They seem more concerned to question those that question the mission in Iraq. They feel that those people are the real threat to the troops. How Orwellian!
Even the "hippie" Gandhi showed his respect to soldiers:
"My nonviolence does not admit of running away from danger and leaving dear ones unprotected. Between violence and cowardly flight, I can only prefer violence to cowardice. I can no more preach nonviolence to a coward than I can tempt a blind man to enjoy healthy scenes ... As a coward, which I was for years, I harbored violence. I began to prize nonviolence only when I began to shed cowardice."
Our troops put themselves on the line for this country, we that are against the war show are support by asking is it worth their lives to be on that line for those reasons. However, when they do go to that line and don't return, we owe them everything for that.
From the "Bonus Army" Marches, the GI Bill was eventually born. Of course, it was a Democratic President who did it - FDR. The GI Bill was born in 1944 for those soldiers that would return from WWII. It was because of this Bill, that college education became a possibility for millions of returning soldiers. Something that they could build a future on. In the first 12 years of the GI Bill, 2,232,000 vets enrolled in college. Another 8 million vets benefited from GI Bill Loans to become home owners in the 1950's. Damn Social Program!
What has the Bush administration offered our vets today. Many have to pay for their meals while recovering at VA Hospitals. Those elderly vets that make over $30,000 a year are told that they will not be treated. And coming down the road is that vets will have to pay for their drug benefit.
Maybe it is time for a 21st century "Bonus Army" March?