Deja vu… all over again??

2 Responses to Deja vu… all over again??

1. Drew says:

   September 19th, 2009 at 11:17 PM

   A great article, from excellent site, Gizmo. A couple more facts about the story of the Bonus Army-
   as the demonstration continued on and tested Hoover’s patience, his AG (Mitchell) ordered the eviction of the Bonus Army from their tent encampment, under the direction of Gen. MacArthur (as was noted), with one group under the command of a young lieutenant named George Patton. Since “resistance” was expected, the “eviction team” was armed with bayonets and adamsite gas, and brought along six tanks for good measure. Upon seeing this, the Bonus Army wrongly assumed this was a military parade being assembled in their honor on Pennsylvania Avenue, so they gathered near the curb to cheer them on.
   Until the gas canisters started to fly.
   When it was all over, several of the unarmed Bonus Army folks were dead, and an infant was permanently blinded by the gas. Herbert “I don’t see no depression” Hoover was nervous about how other leaders looked at his poor performance in office, and wanted a quick and decisive end to any dissent. But several survivors of the attack on the Bonus Army said that Hoover’s decision to use U.S. troops to attack our own veterans did enough damage on it’s own.
2. seagal says:

   September 22nd, 2009 at 7:57 PM

   We can learn a lot from history, don’t ya think?