The Battle of Blair Mountain, 1921

[Fly Boy]

Thanks for posting this, I'd never heard of it, but maybe that isn't so surprising.

 

[Chas]

@Chas: Although I support the Bonus marchers(and labor, historical and current) I think we have to look at it from the perspective of the times. Many people were very afraid that the workers rights movement was part of something larger and more sinister---Events like the Russian Revolution seemed all to close to home to people on the side of the rich when events like Blair Mountain had been in the news. The Depression was feared could be the spark to light the powder keg. Therefore I think MacArthur honestly felt his actions were in the right and in line with preserving America. Since he was a general from a military family he was probably only looking at "the big picture" vs. looking at the individual suffering of the veterans and their families.

Although as Lizzie(btw, thanks for hte added info!) pointed out he may have had some delusion about on which rung his station really was.

Oddly enough he deconstructed a Japanese society after the war to allow for socialist/communist parties, took land away from the land barons, and made other populist reforms.

I wish there was more talk and more exposure for the pre WWII labor struggles. Recently they have shown the History Channel Appalachian documentary which talked about the struggle there, and PBS had a near identical documentary too (though not sure if it showed nationally) so maybe more people will get interested. Since we are loosing our industrial base maybe the movies and documentaries can be made without stepping on to many toes or getting lost in controversy.

Doesn't work if one is one of the veterans who were being gassed by troops of your own government. They weren't "reds". They were men who had fought for their country, were encouraged by a high ranking Marine to demand their bonuses and were dealt with harshly. McArthur disobeyed a direct order and attacked the crowd after they were ejected from the camp, lots of people condemned it then as they do now.

McArthur had a history of insubordinance and would eventually be fired for it; personally, I think he was something of a single minded megalomaniac.