5April 2004 Issue # 53 Press for Conversion!
The Battle of Anacostia, in whichtroops, led by Army Chief of Staff Gen-eral Douglas MacArthur, used exces-sive force to drive thousands of un-armed, protesting WWI veterans fromWashington, D.C., was a turning pointin U.S. history. The Posse ComitatusAct of 1878 explicitly forbade the useof U.S. military forces against Ameri-can citizens. President Hoover blamedMacArthur for mishandling the wholeincident, saying he had usurped au-thority by disobeying explicit orders.
The District of Columbia govern-ment asked federal troops topreserve order. Hoover reluc-
tantly agreed, but only after limitingMajor General MacArthur’s authority.MacArthur’s troops would be un-armed. The mission was to escort themarchers unharmed to camps alongthe Anacostia River. But [Army Chiefof Staff] MacArthur ignored the Presi-dent’s orders, taking no prisoners anddriving tattered protesters from theirencampment.
After Hoover ordered a halt tothe army’s march, MacArthur againtook things into his own hands, vio-lently clearing the Anacostia campsite.A national uproar ensued. Democraticpresidential candidate Franklin D.Roosevelt grasped the political impli-cations instantly. “Well,” he told afriend, “this elects me.”Source: “From Hero to Scapegoat,”Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum. <hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/Hooverstory/gallery07/gallery07.html>
�������������� �������From MacArthur’s statement,the night his men burntHooverville to the ground:
That mob down therewas a bad-lookingmob. It was animated
by the essence of revolution.The gentleness, the consid-eration, with which they hadbeen treated had been mis-taken for weakness and theyhad come to the conclusion...that they were about to takeover in some arbitrary wayeither the direct control of theGovernment or else to control it by indirect methods.... Hadthe President... permitted this thing to go on for 24 hoursmore, he would have faced...a real battle. Had he let it goanother week,...the institutions of our Government wouldhave been very severely threatened.... It can be safely saidthat he had not only reached the end of an extraordinarypatience but that he had gone to the very limit in his desireto avoid friction and trouble before he used force. Had henot used it at that time, I believe he would have been veryderelict indeed in the judgment in which he was handlingthe safety of the country.... Had he not acted with the forceand vigor that he did, it would have been a very sad day forthe country tomorrow....
A reign of terror was being started which may haveled to a system of Caponeism, and...later to insurgency andinsurrection. The President played it pretty fine in waitingto the last minute.... I think asa military maneuver,...it wasunique. I have been in manyriots, but I think this is the firstriot I ever was in, or ever saw,in which there was no realbloodshed. So far as I know,there is no man on either sidewho has been seriously injured.Source: News conference, July28, 1932.<www.presidency.ucsb.edu/site/docs/index_pppus.php>
����������������������From Hoover’s memoirs:
The bonus march was in considerable part or- ganized and promoted
by the Communists and in-cluded a large number ofhoodlums and ex-convicts de-termined to raise a public dis-turbance. They were fre-quently addressed by Demo-cratic congressmen seeking toinflame them against me formy opposition to the bonuslegislation. They were givenfinancial support by some
publishers of the sensational press. It was of interest to learnin after years, from the Communist confessions, that theyalso had put on a special battery of speakers to help Rooseveltin his campaign, by use of the incident.
When...no legislation on the bonus [was] passed byCongress, I aasked...[for] funds to buy tickets home for thelegitimate veterans.... Some 6,000 availed themselves of[this] aid, leaving about 5,000 mixed hoodlums, ex-con-victs, Communists and a minority of veterans....
General MacArthur was directed to take charge.General Eisenhower (then Colonel) was second in com-mand. Without firing a shot or injuring a single person,they cleaned up the situation....
The misrepresentation of the bonus incident for po-litical purposes surpassed any similar incident in Ameri-can history. Not only did Roosevelt use the incident in the
1932 campaign, but Demo-cratic orators...continued touse it for twenty years.... Iwas portrayed as a murdererand an enemy of veterans.
Source: Excerpts from TheMemoirs of Herbert Hoover,1952 -1953, published inButtons and Ballots, March1997. <www.msys.net/cress/ballots2/bonus.htm>
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