The President and Protest: Hoover, MacArthur, and the Bonus March

Lisio re-examines the events surrounding the 1932 Bonus March on Hoover's White House by outraged veterans. Included is an incisive look at the protective motives of Hoover himself and how the president came to be vilified for the actions of MacArthur. The general's retaliation against the veterans was based on a supposed communist threat - which subsequent investigation failed to confirm - yet Hoover could never extract himself politically from the storm of controversy following the event.

Donald J. Lisio is a Henrietta Arnold Professor of History at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.