US Has Long History of Betraying Veterans: Soldiers, National Guard Troops, Sailors, Marines: Join ICWP and Fight for Communism
Pictured: March against cuts to Veterans’ Administration, Detroit (US), February 2025
SEATTLE (US), March 25— “This is just what I need to show how capitalism is the enemy of workers and soldiers,” said a friend about the Red Flag article about attacks on the Veterans’ Administration (VA). She works with high school students and will use the article at their next meeting.
Recent cutbacks at the VA have further devastated an already inadequate system. The current administration threatens to fire an additional 80,000 VA workers and medical personnel by June.
The US ruling class needs to recruit young people into the army. They will use their military might against nations who are gaining world dominance while the US is losing it.
Millions of workers and soldiers have died or been wounded fighting in the bosses’ bloody wars. When they return home, they are denied the health care they need, as well as losing jobs and housing.
ICWP says the international working class can defeat the capitalist system, but only if we fight for communism. We cannot win a revolution without the soldiers. We must understand their important role and win our friends and family members in the military to become communist fighters.
Veterans Fight Back
The Veterans’ Bonus March and encampments after World War I show how the capitalist system discards veterans. Trump and Musk are fascists, but the ultimate responsibility lies with capitalism.
After World War I, returning soldiers were offered a $60 bonus, but they demanded more. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill that would give each soldier who served overseas a certificate that would not pay out until 1945.
By 1932, hundreds of thousands were out of work. The unemployment rate hovered around 30%.
Veterans of World War I organized themselves into the Bonus Expeditionary Force (BEF or Bonus Army) to demand that the bonuses be paid out early so they could feed their families. In the spring, 17,000 veterans, their families, and supporters traveled to Washington, DC and set up camp near the Capitol.
The veterans organized themselves into a shanty town on the banks of the Anacostia River. They were not leaving until those bonuses were paid. They built structures from waste at a nearby dump. They laid out streets, built sanitation facilities, a library, a religious tent, and a post office for sending letters home. Every day they organized a march.
The House of Representatives passed a bill to give the soldiers their bonuses, but the Senate rejected it.
When Ben Shepherd, a leader of the Bonus Army, had marched off to war in 1917, an older veteran had warned him, “You are all heroes now. But some day they’ll treat you like dogs.”
The communist Daily Worker had a more optimistic outlook. “Come the revolution, the marchers would be the ‘shock troops’ of America’s unemployed masses.”
The communist international insisted that the US party send more veterans to the encampments. The left wing won hundreds at the conventions at Fort Hunt but could never say that they led the bonus march.
The generals worried that Marines living close to the camp would join the veterans in their struggle. Black and white vets stood together to fight the armed troops. Army and Navy intelligence continued to report frantically that the protest was a communist plot.
On July 28, 1932, President Herbert Hoover pressured the local police chief to attack the camp. The veterans fought back. Two were killed by police.
The next day, General Douglas MacArthur—a diehard anti-communist who would become infamous for his brutality in the Pacific during World War II—ordered the regular Army to crush the camps.
George Patton, also later a World War II general, led the attack on the veterans and their families. They attacked with cavalry and infantry, led by six tanks and using fixed bayonets, tear gas, and other chemical weapons. A twelve-year-old boy was killed. The regular army soldiers set fire to the camp, forcing everyone to flee.
Capitalism has been the enemy for centuries. The imperialist armed forces continue to sacrifice soldiers and veterans on an altar of profits draped with a flag.
Only communist revolution can end the carnage. Preparing young comrades to build communist collectives in the armed forces is vital. Let’s “turn the guns around!”
Pictured: Black and white veterans fought attacks by cops and soldiers on Bonus March encampments