March of the Bonus Army.

In October 1929 the stock market crashed, 40 percent of the paper values of common stock crashed with it, and the nation was soon plunged into its greatest economic depression. Businesses went under; factory lay-offs put countless workers on the streets; many factories closed their doors never to open again; banks began to fail; and homes and farms were lost as masses of Americans became displaced. By 1932 nearly one in four Americans was unemployed. For an army of World War I veterans it was time to cash in on a bonus Congress had already agreed they deserved, but they were 13 years early and the government was not ready to pay up.

"The March of the Bonus Army", a 30-minute documentary scheduled to premier nationally on PBS stations on Memorial Day, May 29, at 10:30 p.m. eastern time, captures the march of the Bonus Army to Washington, D.C. in 1932 and the ensuing events that influenced the rights of veterans and citizens and stained the pages of U.S. history.

Funded in part with $100,000 provided by the DAV National Service Foundation, "The March of the Bonus Army", produced by New Voyage Communications is history brought to life with rare archival photographs, newsreel footage, period music and interviews with scholars, writers and witnesses of the Bonus March.

The story of the Bonus Marchers is rooted in legislation and hard times. In 1924, Congress agreed that veterans of World War I should receive financial compensation for economic losses suffered while serving in the military. Many politicians opposed the proposal, but a compromise was reached. The compromise directed bonuses for veterans be made but not issued until 1945. The compromise led veterans to dub it a "Tombstone Bonus" because many believed they would be dead before then.

The Great Depression changed everything, and veterans began to seek immediate payment of the bonus. When payment wasn't forthcoming, 300 unemployed veterans led by a former Army sergeant left Portland, Ore. in the spring of 1932 to march on Washington to lobby for their bonuses. By July 1932, as many as 20,000 men, women and children had descended on Washington. Camps sprang up around the city, with many camped near the U.S. Capitol Building, where many politicians viewed them as an unruly mob and revolutionary threat. The stage was set, and the kettle of conflict was reaching the boiling point.

"The March of the Bonus Army" is a story of veterans and people nearly lost to American memory. It is about President Herbert Hoover ordering the eviction of American veterans and their families from their seat of government. It is the story of military leaders, the youngest Army Chief of Staff in U.S. Army history, General Douglas MacArthur; Major Dwight D. Eisenhower; and Major George S. Patton; and a nation's army ordered against its veterans. It is a story of the aftermath of conflict and the tragedy of the years to follow. It is the foundation upon which the GI Bill of Rights would rise. It is the story of a band of veterans whose defense of freedom and determination to preserve the freedom of all Americans made our nation stronger still in the predawn of its next great test--World War II.

Don't miss this epoch chapter in our nation's history. Check your local PBS station for its Memorial Day, May 29, prime time airing of "The March of the Bonus Army."

* In June and July 1932, 45,000 veterans came to Washington in support of a bill proposed by Texas Congressman Wright Patman, which would have brought some economic relief during the Depression by eliminating the requirement that World War I veterans wait until 1945 to receive their cash bonus.

* The BEF was born in Oregon when 250 veterans, led by Walter W. Waters, started their journey to Washington that May.

* The name Bonus Expeditionary Force came from American Expeditionary Force, the name for the troops sent to France.

* Washington Chief of Police Pelham Glassman, himself a World War I veteran, authorized a campsite for the veterans, along with 1,100 wives and children, in the swampy Anacosta Flats outside Washington.

* Camp Marks, named after Anacostia's sympathetic police chief S.J. Marks, had a makeshift barbershop, school, and vaudeville stage, where the song "My Bonus Lies Over the Ocean," became a favorite.

* The unfounded accusations that the Bonus Army had communist roots were the result of the efforts of a director at the Justice Department, 37-year-old J. Edgar Hoover.

* The bill was defeated on July 17, but Congress did appropriate funds to pay For the veterans' journeys back home.

* Those who refused to leave were forced out on July 28. Two veterans were killed and three police officers were injured in the violence that ensued that day.

* Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur went far beyond President Hoover's order to get the military involved by authorizing an invasion of cavalry (led by Officer George S. Patton), infantrymen, and tanks.

* MacArthur's principal aide, who argued for far fewer troops, was Maj. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

* Patman reintroduced his bill in 1936, when it did pass, laying the groundwork for the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, or the G.I. Bill.