I’m a little surprised this hasn’t been prominently mentioned of late (or at least I haven’t seen it mentioned) amid the military intervention in L.A., i.e., Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s infamous crushing of the Bonus Army protests in Washington D.C. in 1932, using U.S. calvary, infantry troops, tanks and tear gas against unarmed veterans. … Screen shot from PBS’s “The March of the Bonus Army.” … And from the Wikipedia entry on the Bonus Army:

“During the military operation, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, served as one of MacArthur’s junior aides. Believing it wrong for the Army’s highest-ranking officer to lead an action against fellow American war veterans, he strongly advised MacArthur against taking any public role: ‘I told that dumb son-of-a-bitch not to go down there,’ he said later. ‘I told him it was no place for the Chief of Staff.’ Despite his misgivings, Eisenhower wrote the Army’s official incident report that endorsed MacArthur’s conduct.^”

Update — And, of course, remember the Kent State shootings, as a Hub Blog reader just pointed out. … Photo below via CNN/Kent State News Service.