It could happen again

[Thanatos]

Would that be Patton by any chance?

[Sir Payne]

If I am not mistaken, Congress did end up paying them early, in 1936 I think.

[Glenn66]

Great way to treat your own citizens...

[drmessimer]

First let me thank Gary (RH1941) for launching this educational thread, which is a feature this Forum offers over all the others. Here are some bits of additional information that might interest you. The nominal commander of the Bonus March was retired Marine Major General Smedley Butler. And George S. Patton was there as the CO of the armored unit that took part. There was a second march in 1933 that was defused without incident, after which FDR offered the men jobs in the newly created WPA (Works Project Agency) in lieu of payment. Many took the offer and were sent down to the Florida Keys to build the Overseas Highway where hundreds of them were killed in the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, a tragic loss attributed entirely to bureaucratic dithering. And Sir Payne is correct, that in 1936, Congress over-rode FDR and paid out the bonus. On another point, raised in this thread by N.C. Wyeth about WWI War Bonds, you might find this interesting too. They were not called war bonds but rather Liberty Bonds and, after the war, Victory Bonds. Far from a flop, the program was an enormous success. I think that the historical misunderstanding arises from the poor showing of the First Liberty Loan Drive in June 1917. But the following three Drives and the fifth--the Victory Loan Drive--were very successful, raising $21,447,335,850 during the two-year period. Director Lewis B. Franklin remarked after the war, "It may be said conservatively that without the sale of Liberty Bonds the financing of the war in the United States would have been almost impossible." Dwight

[RH1941]

Drmessimer very well put . Gary