Early Complaints Americans first began looking after their ex-soldiers in the 17th century, when the Plymouth Colony Pilgrims wiped out the Pequot Indians and passed a law in 1636 requiring the colony to support soldiers disabled in the conflict. The idea expanded as the scale and scope of succeeding wars grew, increasing the countrys need for soldiers. For instance, to entice young men to fight the British “Red Coats,” the Continental Congress of 1776 promised that any soldier disabled in the Revolutionary War would receive a government pension. After the war, the newly born states provided direct medical and hospital care to veterans. The first American veteran to publicly complain about unfair treatment from the government he had fought for may have been Daniel Shays. He returned to his farm in western Massachusetts after the war, but the economic depression that descended over the new nation caused him and many other Massachusetts farmers to default on their taxes. Showing no mercy for men who had driven the British from the colonies, the state began to foreclose on debtors farms. When their pleas for more time were ignored, Shays and other veterans and farmers rose up, sparking Shays Rebellion. A mercenary militia put down the uprising, and Shays passed into history largely as an outlaw rebel. But to many, Shays is still remembered as an exemplar of “standing up when things arent right.” During the early 19th century, the federal government authorized the first combined shelter and medical facility for veterans, the Naval Home in Philadelphia. The government also extended benefits and pensions to the widows and dependents of veterans. About this time, however, the federal government began having the first of its ongoing reservations about its benefits for veterans. In 1818, at President James Monroes behest, Congress authorized funding to expand federal benefits to veterans. Monroe had felt that, regardless of whether they had been injured, all poor and infirm veterans of the Revolutionary War — and now the War of 1812 — deserved the governments support. Some in Congress warned of bogus claims and other abuses, and their fears seemed justified when so many claims arrived that $3 million — six times the amount Congress had authorized — would be needed to pay them. Taxpayers ended up covering all the claims, but in the aftermath, the federal government reduced its assistance to veterans. To Richard Severo and Lewis Milford, respected authors of The Wages of War: When Americas Soldiers Came Home — From Valley Forge to Vietnam, both Shays Rebellion and the reduced veterans assistance epitomized what would become the countrys frequent ambivalence toward its veterans: “From the very beginning, we thought of ourselves as a generous and compassionate people but invariably fell to judging harshly the objects of our compassion and generosity. We urged our best young men to fight hard for us, even if we did not always believe in what the fight was all about. We venerated patriotism, but found something pesky in the expense vouchers of our patriots.” After the Civil War, many states established veterans homes, which provided medical and hospital treatment for all injuries and diseases — service-connected or not. The facilities welcomed indigent and disabled veterans of the Civil War, Indian Wars, Spanish-American War and Mexican War, as well as discharged regular members of the armed forces. But because only veterans of the regular Army and Navy were eligible for care in these facilities, Congress also established, in 1865, the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. One of the last acts signed by President Abraham Lincoln before his assassination, the legislation marked the entrance of the United States into the direct provision of care for the temporary vs. career military man. Yet, despite Lincolns famous concern “to care for him who should have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphan,” the prevailing attitude throughout the victorious North was that veterans should be encouraged toward self-reliance and self-sufficiency, not dependence. For example, the carnage of the war and deprivations of prison camps had left thousands of shattered and maimed men. Even those not requiring acute medical care needed extended periods of government-provided shelter during their readjustment to civilian life. Some got it, but not all. After Lincolns death, the federal government offered payments to Union soldiers who had lost limbs in the war and couldnt get into a shelter. A veteran who lost a leg was entitled to $75; a lost arm merited $50. If the payment were declined, the government would provide the veteran with an artificial limb, to be replaced every three years. Most opted for the cash. U.S. entry into World War I in 1917 prompted Congress to initiate new veterans programs that included insurance policies and vocational rehabilitation for the disabled. But according to authors Severo and Milford, World War I veterans received few benefits immediately after the wars end in 1918. Vocational training had been promised to approximately 110,000 eligible veterans, for example, but by the advent of the 1920s, only 217 men had been retrained. Veterans Bureau Created In 1921, the federal government created the Veterans Bureau, which, along with the Bureau of Pensions and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, administered all federal benefits and programs for veterans. President Warren G. Harding appointed Charles R. Forbes as the bureaus first director. It proved a huge mistake. Forbes essentially used bureau funds as his own private bank account. For example, although the bureau had $33 million for new hospitals and medical facilities, Forbes managed to add only 200 beds to an existing veterans hospital in Tennessee during his two-year tenure. Yet the money was gone. Senate investigators concluded he had secreted away most of it. Forbes was eventually tried and convicted of defrauding the U.S. government. Meanwhile, more than 200,000 letters from veterans seeking information about their claims accumulated unanswered within the bureau. And in every case, the burden was on veterans to prove the validity of their claims. A disgusted columnist eventually wrote, “Congress little realizes that its creature, the Veterans Bureau, has probably made wrecks of more men since the war than the war itself took in dead and maimed.” The Veterans Administration, created by Congress in 1930, consolidated all programs and initiatives of the Veterans Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers under one roof. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and Hitlers expanding assault on Europe, where many Americans claimed ancestry, unified the United States behind its soldiers during World War II, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or class. The eventual defeat of the Axis powers and the ensuing economic boom in the United States generated admiration and honor for the more than 16 million American men and women who had served in the war. Never before had the citizenry and the government displayed such unalloyed gratitude toward veterans service and sacrifice.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 21:24:22 +0000
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