in the summer of 1932 at the height of the Great Depression an impoverished Army of 45,000 World War I veterans marched on Washington DC they believe that if they came to Congress that Congress would finally authorize immediate payment of bonds that they had been promised for the losses that they suffered during World War I but Congress refused to pay the bonus and the Army brutally drove the veterans away it's War the greatest concentration of fighting troops in Washington since 1865 this is The Saga of the Bonus Army in a March that changed the nation my forgot you a rifle in his hand all H is means you're me like major funding for this program was provided by the disabled American veterans national service Foundation since World War I DA has helped veterans recover from the wounds and scars of War DAV building Better Lives for America's disabled veterans and their families additional production support provided by towani Foundation promoting the ideal of the Citizen Soldier at the pritsker military Library Chicago Illinois and by the humanities Council of Washington [Music] DC America was not prepared when it entered World War One in 1917 fighting the Germans required Young American men by the millions and the only way to get them was through conscription the American Army for the first time in it his will be composed of a majority of conscripted troops and when the draft is explained to the American people it's called Selective Service some men were selected to fight others to work in needed defense Industries or as Farmers so it's a different conception of military service as work as opposed to it's just simply a civic duty the first American troops arrived in France in June of 1917 in just 18 months nearly 100,000 lost their lives 200,000 more were wounded or gassed also over there were hundreds of thousands of African American soldiers barged from combat with American units many fought courageously under the French flag for the first time many of these people experienced what it was like to be treated as fully human beings by white people when the Armistice was signed on November 11th 1918 most of the Americans that had served would never be the same as the first waves of troops returned from Europe the nation turned out to honor them with parades but veterans quickly realized the high price they had paid let's say a guy didn't go to war stayed home worked in an arms Factory he would probably get maybe 10 times as much as a soldier would soldier in combat was getting about a buck buck and a quarter a day soon after the war veterans began to argue that soldiers should be compensated for the wages they lost while serving their country they very carefully used the terms adjusted compensation to be clear that what they are asking for is not a bonus they are asking for for back wages that are due to them it was the detractors who called it a bonus finally in 1924 Congress granted World War I veterans adjusted Universal compensation a law had granted them the bonus equivalent to a dollar to a dollar and a quarter a day for every day they sered which in many cases would be $6 800,000 but there was a catch they don't get a nickel of the money until 1945 unless they die that's what they call it the tombstone bonus in 1928 Herbert Clark Hoover a self-made millionaire was elected president in his inaugural address Hoover proclaimed that the future of the country was bright with Hope just 7 months later the stock market collapsed and the country descended into the Great Depression [Music] in America in 1932 hunger and Desperation stalked the land 25% of workers were unemployed and many were veterans one of them was Walter W Waters down on his luck in Portland Oregon he' been a sergeant in the war and that's an indication that you were a pretty good soldier and there were a lot of veterans sitting around trying to find what to do next then came a ray of Hope a bill calling for an immediate cash payment of the Veteran's bonus was introduced in Congress Waters became obsessed with it during this time I was anxiously watching reports in the newspapers of the progress of bonus legislation and I noticed that the highly organized lobbies in Washington were producing results regardless of the Justice or Injustice of the demand at a meeting of John goess veterans Waters stood up and urged them to march on Washington and when that happened it kind of clicked for these guys eventually there were about 300 of them and they go down to the railroad yard to hop Freights and they go all the way across the country to Washington once I built a railroad I made it they called themselves the bonus expeditionary force or bef a play on the American expeditionary Force the collective name for the troops sent to France but soon they were simply known as the Bonus [Music] Army They Carried knapsacks or duffel bags or bed rolls with tin cups dangling they had $30 among them meanwhile word of the bef was spreading even as Waters and his men were heading towards the capital 25 vets from Tennessee were circling the White House in a truck bearing the sign we want our bonus and they start from everywhere they start from Los Angeles they start from Los Vegas they start from Mississippi and Texas they come from everywhere Antonio Oliver a veteran Gast in the Argon forest in France drove from Pennsylvania with his twin Sons Nick and Joe my dad got word to March on Washington and thump the tub for the bonus that they promised the veterans in 1924 and I think it was approaching Dawn when he got there and my father woke us up says there's a capital building I never forgot that while streams of bonus Marchers headed toward the capital pelum glassford the new DC police chief prepared for their Invasion I had been aware from the first that the bef was symbolic of the vast Army of unemployed anything unfortunate that happened might easily precipitate widespread social disorder tellum Glasford was a decorated Brigadier General during World War I who commanded the Loyalty of his man in a very personal way glassford was really pleased in many ways that the veterans were coming to Washington but he knew that the politicians were not sympathetic officials were also concerned that a large number of African-American veterans were mixed in with the Marchers and the irony is that going back to the Great War the African-American troops were segregated from the white troops also preparing for the Bonus Army was a prominent World War I veteran general Douglas a MacArthur the United States Army through its Military Intelligence Division remained greatly concerned about the possibility of Revolution the Army developed a plan to defend the United States capital in the case of civil Insurrection and they were talking about using tanks machine guns gas by the time the bonus Marchers arrived in Washington the Army was more than ready to deal with them at the end of May 1932 nearly 10,000 bonus Marchers occupied the nation's capital and tens of thousands more were on their way police chief Glasford realized he was on his own they followed their leaders in the childlike faith that their government would help them just as they had responded during the war hence I felt these veterans could not be treated like [Music] bums on June 4th thousands of washingtonians line the streets to see what the Washington Post called the strangest military parade the capital had ever witnessed the bef was marching in full force Within days Walter Waters had a full-fledged lobbying operation underway the veterans frankly made a nuisance of themselves couple of veterans were always sitting in each representative's waiting rooms the representatives were solicited outside the building as well the strategy quickly paid off after just 2 weeks the House of Representatives passed the bonus Bill the bef had won a battle but a greater one awaited them in the senate in a remote neighborhood of Washington known as Anacostia an enormous tent and Shack City Rose from the mud flats here the threadbear heroes of World War I formed their last great encampment we just drove in and we were ankled deep in mud I never saw so much mud in my life American flags could be seen flying from every possible vantage point a city was laid out in anacosta the streets were named by states there was a library in the center of it run by the Salvation Army there was music day and night there was gospel music and there was blues music and there was country music and popular music there are people who built beautiful little replicas of of suburban homes there were guys who were buried alive for money I will remember the veteran laying in a gasket saying hey they treat us like we were dead people a popular form of entertainment in the camp was boxing I was the best Bo I was we boxed pass a hat my dad would get a little I raid if we didn't really punch each other out then he'd throw up both of our arms it was always a drug always a draw always a draw people across the country sympathized with the bonish Marchers plight but to official Washington they were just a sign of trouble on the horizon one of the stories that went largely unreported was that the color line seemed to have vanished in the Bonus Army Camps visitors were astonished to see black veterans and white veterans sharing billets chores and rations the military experience has the potential for transcending things like race and for black veterans to be in company with white veterans was a revolutionary thing Roy Wilkins an enterprising young reporter working for the NAACP decided to visit and see for himself at Anacostia there was no residential segregation recruit fruits of any color were made welcome that was a big event in the part of the city that I lived in they had groups of whites and Negroes that formed a unit because they were from the same state that was not so usual for the city of Washington and there were lots of people especially people in the military who saw this was a very very dangerous thing and right there was the tragedy of it all men can live eat play and work together be they black or white just as the bef demonstrated on June 17th 1932 thousands of bonus Marchers assembled on Capital Hill to maintain a vigil on the Senate scheduled to vote on the bonus bill passed by the house the shouts and songs of the veterans the Yanks are starving the Yanks are starving could be heard in the Senate chamber as the heated debate went on late in the day Waters delivered the result to his troops the Senate overwhelmingly defeated the bonus bill and the men were extraordinarily disappointed but fortunately a newspaper reporter suggested to Waters that he ought to order the men to sing America and they did they all sang America and they dispersed peacefully but Waters urged the Marchers to remain in Washington I am not advising anybody to go home we intend to maintain our army in Washington regardless of who goes home President Hoover and other people kept saying why can't we drive them home a lot of these people didn't have a home it was pretty clear to everybody that they could not remain but no one knew how to get rid of them and no one wanted violence on July 16th the last day Congress was in session Washington was on edge thousands of angry veterans surrounded the capital near midnight the 72nd Congress adjourned congressmen left through back doors and underground tunnels to avoid confrontations the situation had come to a head the president ordered the evacuation of the veterans from downtown Washington by police count there were still 11,698 Marchers and their families in Washington midway between the White House and the capital stood a row of half-demolished buildings where hundreds of Marchers were living on the morning of July 28th the wheels were in motion to evict them Waters urged his men to cooperate then someone began to throw bricks at the police glassford and several police officers run to the area two cops uh are grabbed one cop pulls out a gun and he fires another cop turns and he fires a shot one veteran was dead and another Lay Dying now there's been Bloodshed now you've bring in the troops when MacArthur moved his troops to the affected area he knew exactly what he was going to do and he adorned himself in his dress uniform along with his major Aid Dwight D Eisenhower the force stepped off at 4:30 p.m. more than 200 cavalrymen spread out across Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues behind them came 400 infantry Men followed up by tanks and armored vehicles I was about 7 years old at the time and the troops were out on Pennsylvania Avenue I was scared and my dad kept saying nothing's going to happen the cavman one of whom is Major Patton have got their Sabers out the soldiers dawned gas masks and without warning began hurling gas grenades at the veterans the troops Advanced some jabbing with bayonets te gas was just burning my face I was trailing behind my dad and he kept holding come on boy come on boy Marchers were choking from the gas just like the battlefields in France and so they're being forced out of their Shacks by smoke bombs and tear gas hurled by the troops who have been called out by the president of the United States Chief glassford stood by help lessly the veterans did not believe the country for which they had fought would ignore the plight into which the Depression had plac them many did not believe that United States troops would take the field against them by early evening most of the Marchers had been driven across a drawbridge that led to their main Camp the president does not want McArthur across the bridge and MacArthur disregards the order Eisenhower later says that he saw this happen MacArthur says I cannot bother with pieces of paper during a military operation and so he crosses the bridge all through the camp were scenes of panic my dad says let's get the hell out of here the solders are going to kill us then troops began to set fire to their wooden Shacks one reporter wrote The Blaze was so big it lit the whole sky a nightmare come to life the president looked out a window of the White House in the direction of the fire then retired for the night and the Roaring flame sound the death nail to the Fantastic Bonus Army that ends so disastrously in the shadow of the capital of the United States of America the morning after the bonus route public sentiment took a dramatic turn against Herbert Hoover he argued that this was a Communist Revolution and there wasn't one bit of evidence to prove it if the expulsion needed a human face it came in the person of Joe Angelo whose story was published Across the Nation Joe Angelo gets the distinguished service cross for saving Patton's life on the battlefield the next morning Angelo comes to the burned out field to see Patton Patton says take this man away I don't want to see this man Walter Waters quickly faded Into Obscurity the bef was broken up the men returned to some City or other there to roam the streets hopelessly seeking work or to shuffle in bread lines there they remain crying examples not of the need for the bonus but of the need for a new American system so just a few months after the bonus Marchers are driven out of Washington you have a song which is called brother can you spare a dime this song was directly inspired by the Bonus Marchers they used to tell me I was building a dream with peace and Glory ahead why should I be standing in l and it just captured the desperation that was the story of the bonus March say budy can you spare [Music] a on November 8th 1932 Americans desperate for change elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt president the first thing that roselt does he produces something called the economy Act the big victims are veterans disabled veterans still the veterans kept returning to Washington each year FDR knows that he cannot use Force against the veterans he also knows he doesn't want them in Washington DC many of the men were sent to work in Rehabilitation camps in the Florida Keys on September 2nd 1935 the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the Western Hemisphere hits in the upper keys where these guys are located several hundred of them are killed the government attempted to supressed the news but one of the first rescue boats to get in carried the renowned writer Ernest Hemingway in an angry piece he wrote the veterans in those camps were practically murdered when the public finally learned the truth opposition to paying the bonus began to vanish in 1936 War clouds were gathering again in Europe once again the bonus bill is brought up it is vetoed again by President Roosevelt but this time there's enough power in the House and Senate to override The veto the bonus bill becomes law and Veterans tab on World War I is paid in full some 4 million veterans were Overjoyed the so the story comes to an end these guys get their money their lives change my dad come in the house with $7 $100 bills and we thought oh is that what the bonus is you know we didn't know what a bonus was you know it's money after all that time on December 7th 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked and a new generation was called to serve during the second world war Roosevelt admits World War I veterans arguments he will say that the soldiers now serving in our army will have to be compensated for the opportunities they've missed what emerged was the landmark piece of legislation known as the GI Bill of Rights signed into law in June of 1944 it put millions of people into housing put millions of people in college put millions of people into small businesses and it changed the America the legacy of the Bonus Army can be seen in all the marches on Washington that have followed and American soldiers returning from war today expect the government to keep its promises the bonus March was a very visible lesson to political leaders that they did need to do something to respond to the individual needs of americ Americans it tells us about the determination of people to make sure that veterans are recognized for the service that they render to the nation in my later years I understood what it meant it meant freedom to demonstrate and it showed America was a free working [Music] democracy the march of the bonus Army is available on video cassette or dvd the companion book to the program is also available to order call PBS home video at 1 1800 play [Music] PBS once I built a railroad made it run made it Race Against Time once I built a tower now it's done brother can you spare us major funding for this program was provided by the disabled American veterans national service Foundation since World War I DAV has helped veterans recover from the wounds and scars of War DAV building Better Lives for America's disabled veterans and their families additional production support provided by towani Foundation promoting the ideal of the Citizen Soldier at the pritsker military Library Chicago Illinois and by the humanities Council of Washington DC we are PBS