The Power Elite Playbook: Establishing Precedents
1/31/2009
On July 28, 1932, MacArthur revealed his loyalties to the government’s upper management when his men, along with six battle tanks, fixed bayonets and poisonous Adamsite gas (developed by Roger Adams for use in WWI), marched on and fired upon the Bonus Army, a desperate group of World War I veterans and their families (43,000 individuals) who had set up temporary housing which the troops burned. They had been attempting to collect the bonus promised to veterans by the government (which delayed these payments until 1944). Hundreds of veterans were injured and several were killed by MacArthur’s troops. Virulent anti-Communist MacArthur claimed that the veteran’s group had been taken over by pacifists and communists (the latter serving as America’s latest fear-producing, made-to-order enemy). Hoover later helped force the resignation of America’s most decorated general, Smedley D. Butler, who supported the objectives of the Bonus Army. Butler vociferously maintained that war is a racket to enrich big business.
Harold
ACGR's "News with Attitude" 