In 1924, during an era of high national prosperity, congress voted to provide all United States World War I veterans with a monetary bonus, payable in the 1940s. By 1932, however, economics in the United States were so dire, with such high rates of unemployment and foreclosure, that World War I veterans decided to ask Congress to pay their promised bonus early. Veterans believed that congress might grant them the funds early because the United States government had given huge financial bailouts to major business industries like railroads and banks. In the spring of 1932, over 15,000 veterans made their way to Washington D.C. by any means possible. People walked and hitchhiked to attend the rally to petition the government and president for the much-needed funds. In the press, the veterans were called the Bonus Expeditionary Force, a play on words from their former title, the American Expeditionary Force during the First World War.
To the dismay of veterans across the nation, congress voted down the measure at the behest of President Hoover. Most veterans had exhausted their last resources to attend the rally, hoping for the bonus to be paid. When the bonus was refused, thousands of veterans and their families had nowhere to go. Congress offered to buy veterans a one-way ticket home, but this did nothing for veterans with wives and children with them in Washington D.C. In desperation, the homeless veterans began sleeping in abandoned government buildings and constructed a Hooverville near the White House in an area called Anacostia Flats.
President Hoover hated the conspicuousness of the homeless veterans and the negative media attention surrounding the matter. In an effort to remove the veterans from public lands, Hoover asked the local police authorities to evict them. During the attempted removal, police officers panicked and fired their weapons on unarmed veterans and their families, killing two. The matter only escalated negative media attention. In desperation, Hoover turned to the military to remove the veterans, a difficult dynamic of active and former military confrontation. Seven hundred soldiers, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, used tear gas to remove the veterans from Anacostia Flats. In the panic, a mother was unable to reach her infant child in a tent and the baby died from exposure to tear gas.
The attempts to remove veterans and the subsequent deaths caused merciless media coverage and negative public opinions of Hoover because he ordered the aggressive removals. Hoover claimed that the measures were required because the veterans posed a threat to the United States government, a claim that many questioned since the homeless veterans still flew an American flag over their homeless camp. Hoover also claimed that the veterans were communists and criminals. These claims have also never been proven – in fact, there is more evidence against the claims of the president than in favor of them.
Do you think that congress and President Hoover should have given the Bonus Expeditionary Forces their military bonus early? Why or why not? If a president today were to treat homeless veterans this way, how likely would you be to vote for that president again during re-election? How do you think most voters would respond?
