Face-Off: MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Patton vs. The ‘Bonus Army’ of the Great Depression
- An excerpt from the forthcoming book Cockpit of the Capital: The Wild, Hidden History of Capitol Hill
by Ed Moser
July 25, 2020
Copyright © 2020 by Edward P. Moser and Rowman and Littlefield
On June 17, 1932, thousands of veteran soldiers gathered on the east promenade of the Capitol Building.... Under a 1927 federal law, the men of the “Bonus Expeditionary Force”, or B.E.F., could take out loans against their bonuses. However, they couldn’t receive the full payments until 1945. So, with most out of work and out of savings, they demanded the money now. For themselves, and for the 4.7 million other Americans who’d served in the Great War....
Starting in late May [1932], some 25,000 veterans, wives, and children had gathered in Washington to rally for the bonus. Out-of-work farmers, miners, factory hands, clerks, and mechanics had come in from every region in the U.S., and had thrown up 27 makeshift camps around the city. Quite a few were African-Americans, integrated into the novel army....
The House voted to approve payment of the pensions, by a vote of 211-176.... The Senate was much more reluctant about the precedent of granting funds under pressure, as well as the bill’s cost. On June 17, it debated the measure throughout the day and into the evening. The milling crowd of veterans, law enforcement officers, and the curious, about 10,000 in number, waited anxiously on the grounds. Mocking George M. Cohan’s hit First World War tune, “Over There,” and its lyrics, “The Yanks are coming”, some sang out: “The Yanks are starving, the Yanks are starving…”
... A bit of trouble came to Senator Thomas P. Gore of Oklahoma, as his driver took to him to Capitol for the vote. A stone hurled by a protestor smashed through his car window. It landed next to his startled grandson, future novelist Gore Vidal. He would remember his granddad telling him, “’Shut the window.” The perceptive lad recalled seeing “shabby-looking men holding up signs and shouting at occasional cars…{reminding me of} white skeletons like those disjointed cardboard ones displayed at Halloween.”
Walter W. Waters, a lean, excitable, and rather inconstant man, was the head of the Bonus Army. From Oregon, and in his early thirties, he’d been a sergeant and a medic in the war. At 9:30 p.m., Senate aides called him into the legislative chamber.
He soon strode outside with news of the outcome. He announced to the veterans the Senate had voted the bill down.
There was silence among the multitude. And fear at what might happen next....
Read the rest of the story in Ed’s forthcoming book, due out later this year, including these exciting topics:
Ed Moser was a speechwriter to President George H. W. Bush and writer for Jay Leno's The Tonight Show. Ed’s latest book is The White House's Unruly Neighborhood: Crime, Scandal and Intrigue in the History of Lafayette Square
- An excerpt from the forthcoming book Cockpit of the Capital: The Wild, Hidden History of Capitol Hill
by Ed Moser
July 25, 2020
Copyright © 2020 by Edward P. Moser and Rowman and Littlefield
On June 17, 1932, thousands of veteran soldiers gathered on the east promenade of the Capitol Building.... Under a 1927 federal law, the men of the “Bonus Expeditionary Force”, or B.E.F., could take out loans against their bonuses. However, they couldn’t receive the full payments until 1945. So, with most out of work and out of savings, they demanded the money now. For themselves, and for the 4.7 million other Americans who’d served in the Great War....
Starting in late May [1932], some 25,000 veterans, wives, and children had gathered in Washington to rally for the bonus. Out-of-work farmers, miners, factory hands, clerks, and mechanics had come in from every region in the U.S., and had thrown up 27 makeshift camps around the city. Quite a few were African-Americans, integrated into the novel army....
The House voted to approve payment of the pensions, by a vote of 211-176.... The Senate was much more reluctant about the precedent of granting funds under pressure, as well as the bill’s cost. On June 17, it debated the measure throughout the day and into the evening. The milling crowd of veterans, law enforcement officers, and the curious, about 10,000 in number, waited anxiously on the grounds. Mocking George M. Cohan’s hit First World War tune, “Over There,” and its lyrics, “The Yanks are coming”, some sang out: “The Yanks are starving, the Yanks are starving…”
... A bit of trouble came to Senator Thomas P. Gore of Oklahoma, as his driver took to him to Capitol for the vote. A stone hurled by a protestor smashed through his car window. It landed next to his startled grandson, future novelist Gore Vidal. He would remember his granddad telling him, “’Shut the window.” The perceptive lad recalled seeing “shabby-looking men holding up signs and shouting at occasional cars…{reminding me of} white skeletons like those disjointed cardboard ones displayed at Halloween.”
Walter W. Waters, a lean, excitable, and rather inconstant man, was the head of the Bonus Army. From Oregon, and in his early thirties, he’d been a sergeant and a medic in the war. At 9:30 p.m., Senate aides called him into the legislative chamber.
He soon strode outside with news of the outcome. He announced to the veterans the Senate had voted the bill down.
There was silence among the multitude. And fear at what might happen next....
Read the rest of the story in Ed’s forthcoming book, due out later this year, including these exciting topics:
- Tear gas and tanks on Capitol Hill
- The irony facing Patton
- How MacArthur behaved true to form
- How Eisenhower thought one way and acted another
Ed Moser was a speechwriter to President George H. W. Bush and writer for Jay Leno's The Tonight Show. Ed’s latest book is The White House's Unruly Neighborhood: Crime, Scandal and Intrigue in the History of Lafayette Square