Maddow compares ‘Occupy Oakland’ to 1930s ‘Bonus Army’ protest

[Playinghardball]

Source: Raw Story
By Eric W. Dolan



MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on her show Wednesday night highlighted the similarities between the recent crack down on “Occupy Oakland” protesters and the crack down on the “Bonus Army” protesters in 1932. The “Bonus Army” was comprised of war veterans who camped out near the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. The demonstration was forcefully broken up the U.S. Army. When the public learned about the military’s intervention, they were outraged.

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/27/maddow-compares-occupy-oakland-to-1930s-bonus-army-protest/

[geardaddy]

1. Yup, that's what I thought when they first started.

[snappyturtle]

2. I saw this last night and I was very surprised that I didn't hear Rachel mention

the Vet's skull fracture. Maybe I missed it but I think not. Then later I heard Lawrence O'donnel interview a protestor from Oakland who when asked confirmed that protestors were throwing rocks and bottles at the police and essentially saying that was OK because the police were in riot gear and inappropriately responded with chemicals....and she also saidd rubber bullets in two different sizes were found on the ground. Has anyone heard if the protestors were throwing bottles and rocks? It was a terrible interview...long delays and no input as to the protestors pov. I just don't think either of these program segments advanced the OWS agenda. imho

[Uncle Joe]

3. Here's another little piece of trivia re: two time Congressional Medal of Honor winner

Marine Corps General Smedley Butler and a megalomaniac, glory hound, power hungry and insubordinate Douglas MacArthur.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_army

Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, one of the most popular military figures of the time, visited their camp to back the effort and encourage them. On July 28, U.S. Attorney General William D. Mitchell ordered the veterans removed from all government property. Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two veterans were wounded and later died. President Herbert Hoover then ordered the army to clear the veterans' campsite. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and their shelters and belongings burned.

(snip)


At 4:45 p.m., commanded by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the 12th Infantry Regiment, Fort Howard, Maryland, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, supported by six battle tanks commanded by Maj. George S. Patton, formed in Pennsylvania Avenue while thousands of civil service employees left work to line the street and watch. The Bonus Marchers, believing the troops were marching in their honor, cheered the troops until Patton ordered the cavalry to charge them—an action which prompted the spectators to yell, "Shame! Shame!"


Shacks that members of the Bonus Army erected on the Anacostia Flats burning after the confrontation with the military. After the cavalry charged, the infantry, with fixed bayonets and adamsite gas, an arsenical vomiting agent, entered the camps, evicting veterans, families, and camp followers. The veterans fled across the Anacostia River to their largest camp and President Hoover ordered the assault stopped. However Gen. MacArthur, feeling the Bonus March was a Communist attempt to overthrow the U.S. government, ignored the President and ordered a new attack. Fifty-five veterans were injured and 135 arrested.<9> A veteran's wife miscarried. When 12-week-old Bernard Myers died in the hospital after being caught in the tear gas attack, a government investigation reported he died of enteritis, while a hospital spokesman said the tear gas "didn't do it any good."<13>

During the military operation, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, later President of the United States, served as one of MacArthur's junior aides.<14> Believing it wrong for the Army's highest-ranking officer to lead an action against fellow American war veterans, he strongly advised MacArthur against taking any public role: "I told that dumb son-of-a-bitch not to go down there," he said later. "I told him it was no place for the Chief of Staff."<15> Despite his misgivings, Eisenhower later wrote the Army's official incident report which endorsed MacArthur's conduct.<16>

Always Faithful General Smedley Butler would testify to Congress and the American People that "War was a Racket" to benefit corporations and eventually work to stop a coup attempt against a President Franklin D. Roosevelt by the 1%ters of their day.

MacArthur; would go on to disregard the U.S. Constitution, defy President and Commander in Chief Harry Truman during the Korean War which would lead to MacArthur's firing, the biggest problem with MacArthur is that the old fart didn't "fade away sooner."

Thanks for the thread, Playinghardball.

[provis99]

4. MacArthur sucked as a general too.

He bears sole responsibility for the largest ever American defeat, when he got beat by a Japanese army in the Philippines that he outnumbered 3 to 1.

He later cost thousands of American lives just so he could brag that "I have returned!" to the Philippines