The Bonus Army

The journalist John Pilger called World War Two the 'cleansing moral bath' that expunged from the history books any crimes or deviations of the allied powers, Britain and America. One very good example of this is the largely forgotten crimes perpetrated against the bonus army in 1932. World War One Veterans who camped out in Washington, demanding the 'bonus' they were entitled to for fighting the war, were dispersed with terrible violence by the 'heroes' of the next war General Douglas MacArthur and his able deputies George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower. It would be highly unlikely, considering subsequent events, that these figures would ever be held up to public scrutiny and aprobrium over their extremely violent and largely unnecessary (and in more than one instance, illegal) actions regarding the Bonus Army. We as history students, however, look beyond the historical legends of these three men into their more questionable behaviours and beliefs.