When 17,000 starving U.S. veterans of World War I marched on Washington in 1932 to demand an early activation of their service bonus from Herbert Hoover, the vets' encampments on the Potomac were infamously and brutally busted up by General Douglas MacArthur -- on a white steed -- who led young American troops in bloody attacks on older American troops who were literally begging for sustenance from the government they had served in the horrible "War To End All Wars."
Here's a detail I just picked up from Studs Terkel's "Hard Times," which I'm reading for the first time this week: MacArthur was aided and abetted by two other rising stars of the U.S. Military: George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower.
"Thank god," said President Hoover, "we still have a government that knows how to deal with a mob."