BETRAYED: When America Sent Tanks Against Its Own Veterans

America promised to take care of its soldiers. Then it sent the Army to attack them.

Summer, 1932. The Depression is crushing the country. Around seventeen thousand jobless World War One veterans march on Washington. They want one thing: a bonus Congress promised them, not due until 1945.

They camp with their wives and children across the Anacostia River. President Hoover wants them gone. On July 28th, police open fire. Two veterans, William Hushka and Eric Carlson, are shot dead.

Then Hoover sends in the Army. General Douglas MacArthur, with aides named Eisenhower and Patton, rolls in with cavalry, infantry, tanks, and tear gas. They drive out their own veterans and burn the camp to the ground.

Weeks later, a baby died after the gas. The government blamed illness. The veterans never believed it. That spectacle helped sink Hoover's reelection.

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