Book review--What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France
Mary Louise Roberts, University of Chicago Press, 2013
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of history Mary Louise Roberts tells us what American soldiers did with themselves after landing in France following D-Day, June 6, 1944. On one hand, the American media (Roberts calls it a “propaganda machine”) espoused American sociopolitical imagery, of America as a “vibrant democracy” and American GIs as “virile protectors” of French women. To bolster the latter image, American media dispensed numerous photographs of victorious American GIs “surrounded by adoring French women”. On the other hand, the media fully cooperation with the US military to shield the genteel folks back home from GI Joe’s rape, venereal disease and prostitution. The stories in Roberts’ book are not the World War II tropes generated by the “propaganda machine,” such as former journalist Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation (Random House, 1998), an assortment of interviews of World War II era veterans and civilians. Unsurprisingly, after a search of the on-line edition of The Greatest Generation, words such as “sex” (as in intercourse), “rape” and “prostitute” are conspicuously missing. Either Brokaw carefully pre-screened his interviewees or rape and soliciting prostitutes were not as common as the current book contends.
One wonders if American GIs were, in fact, oversexed and continuously sacking French villages for female victims as Soviet troops did as they stormed westward from Mother Russia to Berlin.[1] “Triumphant over death,” the soldiers were “haunted for life. Lost friends crowded their dreams; guilt consumed them.”[2] Understandably, according to Roberts, “drinking and whoring with French women” were means of escape from the harsh realities of combat. So how often did GIs rape and use prostitutes? A few times? Frequently? Based on the numerous “propaganda machine” photos of GIs surrounded by “adoring” French women, French women had absolutely nothing to worry about—really! While Roberts reports lurid detail after detail of individual rapes and decries the numerous instances of female harassment, we are not given solid numbers.
We are told, however, that black GIs were disproportionately accused of and executed for rape —Roberts notes that of 152 GIs tried for rape, 139 were “colored”.[3] Of 29 GIs executed for rape in the European Theater of Operations, 25 were black. (Roberts notes that for other capital crimes, about 14% of those sentenced to death for desertion were black.) These grim numbers “no doubt” reflect “a deep and abiding racism in its [the American army] dealing with African American soldiers,” Roberts tells us, that blacks are “expendable”. The hangings, Roberts states, were “aimed to protect the color line,” to protect white women from black men. Furthermore, French civilians also share responsibility in generating the disparities in prosecution and punishment of blacks because of their “racial hatred and fear.”
Roberts states that the US military referred to rape as a “black crime”, as a “fact” of black “racial depravity”. The US military, Roberts charges, “inadequately investigated rape charges… insufficiently probed the reputation of the accuser and witnesses.” Given some of the circumstances, as Roberts reports, under which black GIs were accused of rape, perhaps some of the cases presented to a US military court would not pass the usual legal threshold of reasonable doubt in a civilian court. It is important to note here that there are significant differences between military and civilian criminal justice systems, including the admissibility of hearsay statements as evidence.[4] It is interesting, though, that Roberts’ insistence of victim scrutiny has fallen on deaf ears, for example, with respect to the Japanese military comfort women, where former Korean comfort women must be absolutely be trusted and actual documentation of their circumstances must be strenuously ignored.[5] Also confirming the veracity of a rape victim is anathema in the “MeToo” era— don’t you know female victims of the patriarchy are always right?
However, consider Roberts claims: did blacks actually commit more rapes than whites? In 1940, black Americans were just under 10% of the US population but accounted for 40% of all arrests for criminal homicide and 24% of burglaries.[6] Also, over twice as many black men than white men were arrested for “prostitution and commercial vice” and about twice as many black men as white men were arrested for rape. Giving blacks more legal protection under the Civil Rights Act and preferential treatment with affirmative action, there should be fewer black victims today of a “racist” justice system. In both 2001 and 2013, there were over twice as many black state prisoners as white state prisoners incarcerated for rape/sexual assault.[7] Interestingly, in 2013, the incarceration rate for blacks for rape/sexual assault decreased by about 9%. By contrast, incarceration rates for Hispanics and other races increased during the same period. Perhaps the “racist” American justice system stopped targeting blacks and is now targeting other people. What do American black think about that—that they are no longer the top priority of a “racist” American justice system?
According to the US Census, in 2000 and 2010, blacks were about 6% of the population in California.[8] However, in 2002 and 2013, there were six to eight times more blacks than whites arrested for “forcible rape”.[9] As with national incarceration rates, in California, black arrests for forcible rape in 2013 appeared to have decreased from that of 2002. Also of interest is that rates of arrests for all other races for forcible rape have decreased in California in 2013 compared to 2002. Nationally (incarceration) and within California (arrests), blacks are about as likely to be either arrested or incarcerated for sexual assault today as they were before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Black criminal behavior does not appear to be worsening over time and maybe we should all be grateful.
Remember that white GIs were also accused of and punished for rape. It appears that something triggered young male Americans, regardless of race, to commit sexual assault—Roberts points to the American “propaganda machine”. Before shipping out to military training camps, most if not all young American conscripts have never ventured beyond their home town much less their home state. What conscripts knew of France was either through the media or word-of-mouth. To these men, according to Roberts, France was “a playground of easy women and loose morals,” the French were “decadent and immoral,” “primitive and oversexed,” and French women are “’easy’ and without shame”. Furthermore, following libation, belief spread among GIs that France is grateful for saving it from fascists. The US military apparently did nothing to curtail this line of thinking, the “happy rescue of a female nation”.
Some GIs could have taken the media to heart and assaulted any female civilian who did not display enough appreciation for Americans but not all GIs acted on the media’s “fake news”. According to Roberts, American soldiers viewed “sexual desire” as “something to be restrained lest it overwhelm rationality and moral self-discipline.” This was apparently the opinion of soldiers of the US Army 9th Infantry Division, up until early 1945, an all-white unit.
Roberts’ book is missing what black soldiers thought about “sexual desire”. Based on findings by US Army military historian Ulysses Lee, black soldiers could have had different thoughts.[10] During the first half of the war, white inductees were rejected because of major physical defects, such as to eyes and teeth, whereas black inductees were rejected because of venereal diseases. Lee goes on, indicating that aside from higher rates of venereal disease than whites, black inductees tended to have “somewhat lower percentages of defects compared to whites of eyes, ears, teeth, lungs and to the musculoskeletal system”. These findings suggest that while blacks were more sexually active than whites, blacks appeared to be hardier than whites in some physical aspects despite their decidedly lower socioeconomic status compared to whites at the time.
The incidence of venereal diseases reflects sexual activity and black Americans do show higher sexual activity than other racial groups. In fact, subsequent data have shown that Africans, including black Americans, demonstrate significantly higher prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases than Europeans and Asians, including white and Asian Americans.[11] Other indicators of sexual activity, such as age of first intercourse, intercourse frequency and number of sexual partners also support the contention that Africans are sexually more active than other races. Objectively, this conclusion is not controversial, which is why, for example, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested much effort and treasure in combatting AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.[12] Given these facts, it should not be surprising then that black American soldiers in France were tried and punished for rape at a greater rate than white soldiers.
French civilians’ fear of armed black soldiers, even if they are allies, should also be understandable. For the French, their own colonial experience reminded them of what blacks can do. In 1729, Natchez Indians attached French settlers at Fort Rosalie in what is now the state of Mississippi. Most of the white men were slaughtered and the white women were taken captive, some were mutilated before being murdered. The 200 African slaves owned by the French joined in attacking the French, but later taken as slaves by the Natchez.[13] In French colonial Haiti, French females were raped and then mutilated during infrequent black slave uprisings. After Haitian liberation from French rule in 1804, French women were raped.[14] In May 18, 1944, after the capture of Monte Cassino in Italy, French African troops reportedly raped up to 60,000 Italian women.[15]
Roberts’ story of GI rape and licentiousness during a sacred era is fascinating reading if one gets past the Metoo victimization screed and critical race theorizing. Good books evoke more questions—possibly questions that polite society and the propaganda machine do not want you to ask. We are constantly reminded by the propaganda machine that history is settled—the Allies won a glorious victory over the Axis and American GIs in particular were flawless bearers of democracy. Readers can be grateful, to a degree, for Roberts’ effort in chiseling the façade built by the propaganda machine.
[1] Mark, J. (2005). Remembering rape: Divided social memory and the Red Army in Hungary 1944-1945. Past & Present 188: 133-161.
[2] In fact, Roberts collected grim, individual stories of World War II soldiers in the field in her recent book, Sheer Misery (University of Chicago Press, 2021). While the US military did not condone rape, gallant ally Marshal Josef Stalin did: “… And what is so awful about [Soviet troops] having fun with a woman …?” (McMeekin, S. (2021). Stalin’s War. NY, NY: Basic Books.)
[3] The Soviet army was not to be out-done by the American army: “In Yugoslavia alone [by then firmly within the Soviet Union’s orbit], by 1945 local authorities had reported … 121 cases of rape by Red Army soldiers, of which 111 were rape-murders.” McMeekin, S. (2021). Observed one of Tito’s partisans: “We are witnessing a return to the administrative methods of Attila and Genghis Khan.”
[4] https://mvets.law.gmu.edu/2019/01/15/criminal-justice-vs-military-justice/. https://jsc.defense.gov/Portals/99/Documents/MREsRemoved412e.pdf
[5] Hata, I. (2018). Comfort Women and Sex in the Battle Zone. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books.
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans. Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice. (1941) Uniform Crime Reports. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
[7] Rubenstein, E. S. (2016). The Color of Crime. Oakton, VA: New Century Foundation. Were the US judicial system so “racist” that it was out to “get” all blacks into prison, the rate of black incarceration should increase or at least remain the same over time. However, the rates of black incarcerations, as multiples of white incarcerations for all violent and property crimes decreased by about 12% and 31%, respectively, in 2013 compared to 2001.
[8] https//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California#Population
[9] Rubenstein, 2016. In the case of California, police do not appear to be arresting as many blacks as they have in the past for “forcible rape”. It should be noted that not all arrests end with convictions and incarcerations—perhaps police in California are being more selective in arrests.
[10] Lee, U. (1962). The Employment of Negro Troops. Paper back ed., 1994. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
[11] Rushton, J.P. (2022). Odyssey. Portsmouth, NH: MindStir Media. The more recent scourge of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) also follows a racial gradient, in that those of African ancestry have highest rate of infection, Asians the lowest rate of infection and Caucasians are intermediate. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/racialethnic/other-races/diagnoses.html This gradient can be seen at both national and international levels. Templer, D.I. & Rushton, J.P. (2011). IQ, skin color, crime, HIV/AIDS, and income in 50 U.S. states. Intelligence 39: 437-442.
[12] https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/articles/gene-therapy-mike-mccune
[13] White, S. (2013). Massacre, Mardi Gras, and torture in early New Orleans. William and Mary Quarterly 70: 497-538.
[14] Stoddard, T.L. (1914). The French Revolution in San Domingo. NY, NY: Houghton Mifflin Co.
[15] https://www.gendersecurityproject.com/post/crsv-marocchinate
postscript: for anyone interested in irony
https://medium.com/frame-of-reference/emmett-tills-father-died-for-the-same-reason-as-his-son-fe6dc7dc451e