Reply #59: It's not the first time. Let's travel in time back to 1932

[TahitiNut]

Let's remember the Veterans "Bonus March" on Washington during the Hoover Regime. Let's remember MacArthur leading the military attack against the veterans, killing three and injuring 56.

Congress had overridden Herbert Hoover’s veto of a veterans’ compensation act early in 1932, which provided some relief for ex-servicemen, but also fueled sentiment for having payments made in cash. Such requests were swiftly rejected by Republican leaders who believed that such irresponsible action would only deepen the nation’s woes.
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1513.html




After forcing the veterans out of Washington, MacArthur's troops crossed the 11th Street bridge and, using gas grenades and wielding bayonets, drove the marchers from their Anacostia camp. (National Archives)


In 1924, Congress had voted to award to some 3.5 million veterans what were called Adjusted Compensation Certificates—basically bonds masquerading as one thousand dollar bonuses due to mature in 1945 (or upon the death of the holder). For some it was the only asset they possessed. As America entered the 1930s, the bread line and the soup kitchen had become national symbols of the Depression, and joblessness, unrest, and privation became the catalyst for the Bonus March on Washington in the summer of 1932. The veterans believed their government had betrayed them by failing to pay the promised compensation for their World War I service. But an unsympathetic Hoover administration turned a blind eye to the plight of the former servicemen and never considered paying the bonus. When the veterans began to mount organized protests, they were stonewalled in the ill-advised belief that to react would inevitably lead to even further unrest.

More than ten thousand veterans, calling themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force, converged on Washington to lobby Congress, some with their families, virtually all with no place to live and no money to afford food or accommodations. A few squatted in unoccupied, condemned buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue not far from the White House, but the largest contingent created an enormous shantytown in the Anacostia mud flats, unofficially known as "the Flats" or "Hooverville." Violence broke out the morning of July 28, 1932, when District of Columbia police attempted to eject the squatters from downtown. Exceeding Hoover's orders merely to clear the protesters, the War Department called out armed troops on that fateful July afternoon. Although Eisenhower attempted to dissuade him, MacArthur elected to personally direct the operation dressed in full uniform.

http://www.thehistorynet.com/mhq/blmacarthur/index1.html