It Can’t Happen Here?
“Bonus Army” protests at the Capitol in 1932. Courtesy, Library of Congress.
The nation was roiling from fear and discontent laid bare by the Great Depression. On the morning of FDR’s inauguration, March 4, 1933, Washington was braced for violence. Elected in a landslide, Roosevelt promised to make people’s lives better. They deserved a New Deal, he had said. But a faction of bankers and businessmen opposed to government spending to help those struggling hatched a plot to overthrow the new president. Had the coup succeeded, the New Deal—and the idea that a government exists to give all people the chance for a better life— would have ended before it had even begun.