The Bonus Army: The History of the Controversial Protests by American World War I Veterans in 1932

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the Bonus Army written by members and eyewitnesses *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "On a day in June, 1932, I saw a dusty automobile truck roll slowly past my house. I saw the unshaven, tired faces of the men who were riding in it standing up. A few were seated at the rear with their legs dangling over the lowered tailboard. On the side of the truck was an expanse of white cloth on which, crudely lettered in black, was a legend, BONUS ARMY." – Evalyn Walsh McLean, Father Struck it Rich (1936) Throughout its history, the United States, like most other countries, has faced the challenge of how to properly reward those have risked, and often given, their lives to defend it. Should they be treated as professionals who were just doing a job? What about those who were drafted, many of whom fought against their own will (or at least preference)? Could anyone really pay them for giving up years of their lives for others? If so, how much was enough to pay a man who had left a comfortable home to live in mud and near starvation? As tough as such questions are in the 21st century age of the professional army, they were that much more complex in the past. One of the main questions that fueled the fire of discontent in the 1920s and 1930s was the issue of military bonuses, that is, extra pay for the difference between what a man earned as a soldier while serving his country and what he might have otherwise earned. This issue remained a bone of contention over the decades that followed and turned up again and again every time the United States went to war. Perhaps because the war lasted such a short time, the veterans of the Spanish-American War, fought over three months in the summer of 1898, did not receive any bonuses. However, this decision came back to haunt the nation decades later when World War I ended. The men who had sailed to Europe to defend American allies from German advances received $60 in the form of bonuses, leading to a public outcry against the government’s stinginess. After all, these men were not even defending their own families and loved ones from attack but were protecting foreign governments. Why, many wondered, should their loved ones suffer from the wages lost on European shores? The unrest culminated in one of the most controversial protests of the 20th century, that organized by the Bonus Army in Washington, D.C. in the spring and summer of 1932. The Bonus Army consisted mostly of World War I veterans who were seeking to redeem bonus certificates from the World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924, which had stipulated that they could not be redeemed until 1945. Unfortunately, the economic plight had left so many of them struggling that they were seeking the vitally necessary money right away. Tens of thousands of World War I veterans came to the capital with virtually nothing and erected makeshift camps, all but waiting for a reward. Eventually, what they got was violence, meted out by one of America’s most famous generals: Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur. After the Bonus Army began camping out in Washington D.C., ironically using supplies that MacArthur himself had issued to them, Washington grew impatient with their demands and politicians started calling for their forced expulsion. When police confronted the Bonus Army, shots were fired and several veterans were killed. After that, Hoover ordered MacArthur to use the military. Certainly he imagined the “Bonus Army” as some kind of communist front, and certainly he came close to exceeding President Hoover’s orders. Fortunately however, casualties were light, with one fatality, in contrast to the half dozen killed the day before by the police. Nevertheless, the sight of soldiers marching on old veterans and inflicting violence upon them was a public relations fiasco, and MacArthur has long been criticized for the actions.