The Price of Freedom: What American GIs Did in France in World War II
The Normandy landings in World War II are known to almost no one. No one denies that the opening of the Western Front by the U.S. Army was instrumental in accelerating the course of the war. However, in addition to the American GIs' heroic resistance to the German army and the liberation of France, they also brought deep pain to France.
This book, written by American Mary Louise Roberts, opened my eyes to the unsavory side of what American GIs did to France in World War II.
The focus of the book is sex and the American GI. Before the American GIs came to Europe, fathers and other people told tales of French women who were young and beautiful, gentle and open, without shame, seeking physical pleasure, and that France was one big kiln, and the forest for the trees, even certain propaganda.
This led to the American GIs entering France and giving vent to their sexual desires in a frenzy, with prostitutes all over the place, regardless of the occasion, and even in public, without avoiding passers-by. On top of that, rape cases were frequent, the law and order situation was poor, and accusations of rape by U.S. troops were common. The handling of rape cases is full of racial discrimination, lynchings are abused and blacks are scapegoated.
After the U.S. Army fought off the German invaders, it asserted itself as the new occupier. The arrival of American troops did not bring peace and abundance to the French, and the Americans were not saviors, but merely new occupiers.
There was a saying in Normandy that when the Germans came, we needed to hide ourselves; when the Americans came, we needed to hide the women. (P50)
The U.S. Army landed in Normandy without informing the French National Liberation Committee headed by Charles de Gaulle in advance, and only at the last minute before the landing. The sovereignty of France, in the eyes of the U.S. military, was not guaranteed or respected, even if the U.S. had to consider whether or not to let de Gaulle as the Lord of France.
Sovereignty was not respected, nor were the people of the country, either. The poverty caused by the war has depersonalized the people, and the women are dropping like flies into the arms of the American army, with no dignity.
World War II made America strong and Europe poor. Many girls, for bread and for gifts went to bed with the occupiers. A retired American GI said back in the 1970s that today's European women are respectable and live modestly, but these women, at least once in their lives, have spread their legs to get a piece of bread. (P96).
The U.S. Army in World War II was both liberator and conqueror; destroyer and builder. History has tended to exaggerate the liberator and builder side and ignore the conqueror and destroyer side.
War has always been about conquest and occupation, and this conquest and occupation necessarily includes the conquest and occupation of a woman's flesh, as in the Times Square Kiss, which is usually seen as a congratulatory victory, but despite the nurse's fabulous gesture, and despite the rejoicing, one cannot ignore that the sailor's kissing of the nurse in Times Square was in fact a continuation of the conquest and occupation, and was a sexual assault on the nurse!