The second largest riot since the 1863 Draft Riot in New York happened in Detroit in 1967 - and was a harbinger for the tumultuous years to come in the United States. (Kinderwood Archive) 1967: Detroit's 12th Street Riot As the vets retreated from Capitol Hill, the U.S. The Army shot tear gas and marched on the Bonus Army with fixed bayonets. Hoover soon got wind of the incident and ordered General Douglas MacArthur and tanks from the 3rd Cavalry Regiment to do the job. President Herbert Hoover's attorney general ordered the police to remove them, which did not go as planned. The veterans formed an activist group called the "Bonus Army" to go to Washington and advocate for the pay, setting up camp on Capitol Hill. That's a cool $9,300 in 2020 dollars, more than enough to survive the Great Depression.įor most vets, that money was to be paid over the span of years, but with the Depression in full swing, everyone needed cash right then. Congress promised them a cash payment of up to $1 for every day they were in active service, to a maximum of $500. In the years following the 1929 stock market crash, the situation for struggling World War I veterans quickly went from bad to worse. ![]() Though not as destructive or deadly as the NYC Draft Riots, the 1932 Bonus Army attack was notable for the use of federal military troops to clear out a bunch of veterans looking for help from the government - help that was promised to them anyway. ![]() The violence got so bad, President Lincoln also sent battle-hardened veterans - who just finished fighting at Gettysburg - to New York to restore and maintain order. (National Archives and Records Administration)
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