MacArthur Putsch

The MacArthur Putsch was a military coup d'etat against the constitutional government of the United States that was carried out on 1 February 1933, in response to the victory of Norman Thomas and the Popular Front in the 1932 elections. Lead by U.S. Army Lieutenant General Douglas MacArthur, reactionary forces within the military and political establishment - organized under the banner of the "National Salvation Front" - forced outgoing incumbent president Herbert Hoover into authorizing an extralegal seizure of power and national state of emergency to prevent the newly-elected left-wing government from taking office. Members of the leaderships of the Workers' Communist Party and the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party were charged with "encouraging insurrection and the willful destruction of property" under the Sedition Act, and warrants were quickly issued to authorize mass arrests. Backed by far-right paramilitary groups such as the American Legion, several summary executions and assassinations were carried out, including that of President-Elect Norman Thomas himself.

In spite of the swift military take-over of Washington D.C. (now DeLeon-Debs) and the submission of most Democratic and Republican state governments to the putschist government nationally (with Louisiana standing out as a major exception), the fledgling Government of National Salvation would be unable to prevent armed resistance and uprisings against the coup across nationally, with state governments in industrial regions of the Midwest and North-East falling to the control of revolutionaries within days. With the putschist forces (known as the "Whites") unable to quell uprisings in response to the illegal seizure of power nationally, the Putsch came to mark the beginning of the Second American Civil War, ending with victory for left-wing forces (known as the "Reds") and the formation of the Union of American Socialist Republics.