Bonus Army Dbq

In 1924, Congress approved a payment to World War 1 veterans that they would receive a $1,000 bonus for their victory in the war by the year 1945. But in 1932, those veterans decided that they wanted their bonuses early due to the financial troubles that were arising. Hoover rejected their appeal because he was concerned with balancing the budget. The federal government also didn’t have the money; they were broke too at the time because of the Great Depression. In response, in June, over 20,000 veterans who called themselves the “Bonus Army” (or the “Bonus Expeditionary Force”) marched to Washington, build camps around the city, and vowed to remain there until Congress approved legislation to pay the bonus.
I think their demands and actions were not justified because they were promised the bonus by 1945, and had no right to demand it early, especially in such a manner.
The Bonus Army was simply protesting in mostly non-violent ways, and living in buildings that were abandoned. Just because their presence “disturbed President Hoover”, I do not believe that he had the right to instigate the violence to get rid of them. Additionally, the federal government had more powerful weapons, while the protestors basically had nothing to fight with, so ordering troops to deal with the marchers put them in an unfair situation. Furthermore, after the U.S. Army was called upon and the veterans fled, the veterans should have been left alone afterwards, not pursued by General MacArthur. The violence that broke out was a direct cause of Hoover and the U.S. government, and was also unnecessary in regards to how the protestors were dealt with. This entire episode caused Hoover to be viewed as unsympathetic and detached by the suffering public, causing his overall political image to become damaged even farther, and rightfully