Pushing Down the Wall When It Falls

The brutal suppression at the Capitol instantly set American and worldwide public opinion ablaze, and it also made President Hoover and MacArthur, the executioner behind the incident, hated by nearly all the veterans.

This was the biggest news in a decade. Huge numbers of media outlets swarmed to the scene, continuously reporting on the demonstrations and suppression at the Capitol.

Some fearless media outlets even interviewed veteran groups and certain police officers one after another. Those with the means even tracked down MacArthur, who had caused the massacre.

MacArthur's answer was that President Hoover believed the protest movement was dangerous and might be controlled by other forces behind the scenes. That was why the protest had been suppressed.

The US Government also issued an emergency statement, claiming that President Hoover's original intention had not been to forcibly suppress the veterans, but merely to disperse them peacefully.

Regardless of whether Army Chief of Staff MacArthur or President Hoover was telling the truth, nothing could undo the harm this incident had inflicted on the veterans.

According to rough statistics, of the more than twenty thousand veterans and family members who had taken part in the demonstration, over a thousand had died and more than three thousand had been injured.

Until the day they died, these veterans and their families could not understand why American soldiers and weapons had not been used on a battlefield to defend their country, but instead had been turned on their own people in a massacre of demonstrators.

These veterans had not died on the brutal battlefields of World War I or on the perilous journey to Europe. Instead, they had died beneath the guns of the United States Army. It was enough to leave anyone sighing in disbelief.

Even if President Hoover offered an explanation, he could