Troop Crime in Peacetime: Criminality and Accountability of U.S. Troops Worldwide During the Cold War

• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211011578
• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Date: 01 July 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211011578

Armed Forces & Society

2022, Vol. 48(3) 657 –678

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211011578

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Article

Original Manuscript

Troop Crime in

Peacetime: Criminality

and Accountability of U.S.

Troops Worldwide

During the Cold War

Asif Efrat

1

Abstract

U.S. forces abroad have often faced complaints about crimes committed by troops,

yet we lack systematic quantitative information on such crimes. Based on newly

discovered data compiled by the Army, this article presents a comprehensive and

detailed picture of American troops’ criminal activity worldwide during the Cold

War (1954–1970). The data show that troops engaged in significant criminality,

with a particularly high rate of violent crime—homicide, rape, and robbery—and a

relatively low rate of property crime. Host countries treated offending troops

leniently: Prison sentences were rare, and they averaged less than 2 years in dura-

tion. The data presented here hold far-reaching implications for our understanding

of the relations between U.S. forces and host countries and the legacy of U.S.

military deployments.

Keywords

U.S. military, Europe, law, criminal justice, NATO, crime

The American military presence worldwide has been a major feature of the global

security environment in the post–World War II era. By stationing hundreds of

thousands of troops in Western Europe, East Asia, and other regions, the United

1

Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Asif Efrat, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, 8 Ha’Universita St., Herzliya 4610101, Israel.

Email: asif@idc.ac.il

658 Armed Forces & Society 48(3)

States has sought to accomplish a host of strategic and geopolitical goals: from

deterring aggression and reinforcing alliances to establishing global logistics net-

works and facilitating smooth resource flows. This massive military deployment has

produced important salutary effects at the regional or global levels: from preventing

a major war in Europe to supporting the liberal international economic order

(Ikenberry, 2011). At the national level, countries hosting U.S. military bases have

clearly benefited from the American presence. Thanks to the American troop

deployments, host countries could reduce their own defense efforts (Lake, 2009,

p. 143; Martinez Machain & Morgan, 2013). U.S. military presence also spurred

economic growth and development in host countries, and it stimulated foreign

investment and trade (Biglaiser & DeRouen, 2009; Heo & Ye, 2019).

At the same time, troop presence created negative by-products for host countries,

including noise and environmental pollution and degradation, car accidents involv-

ing U.S. personnel, damage to roads and fields during maneuvers, and the risks

arising from the transit and storage of nuclear weapons (Calder, 2007; Kawana &

Takahashi, 2021; Kawato, 2015, p. 66; Yeo, 2011, pp. 17–19). This article, however,

focuses on a major problem that host countries found particularly upsetting and

outrageous: crimes perpetrated by U.S. troops.

That American troops often committed criminal offenses against host-country

population is a well-known fact. Many studies have identified this problem and its

adverse effects on local perceptions of U.S. troops and on U.S.–host relations.

Consider the following examples. Fu

¨rmetz (2013) finds that in 1950s Germany,

troops committed a variety of crimes including rape, assault, robbery, and bur-

glary. Such crimes received significant coverage in the German local and national

press and prompted official complaints and calls for action. A study of U.S. forces

in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s similarly indicates troop involvement in the

black market (e.g., sale of cigarettes and whiskey) as well as violent crimes against

local citizens. In 1979, a series of three rapes of young German women by

American troops in a period of 3 weeks triggered harsh reactions in the local press

and raised tensions between the U.S. military and West Germans (Nelson, 1987).

In Japan in the 1950s, a wave of media stories about troop-related crime eroded

support for the American presence, convincing some Japanese that they would be

better off without U.S. forces in their midst (Packard, 1966, pp. 36–37). Tensions

ran particularly high following prominent cases, such as the killing of a Japanese

woman by a U.S. service member in 1957 (Curtin, 2012) or the 1995 rape of a

Japanese schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen (Angst, 2001). In Korea since

the 1950s, reports often circulated about troops’ violent crimes against local

prostitutes (Moon, 2010).

Overall, the existing literature offers many pieces of evidence of crimes commit-

ted by troops—mostly evidence of a qualitative nature and, occasionally, limited

quantitative data (e.g., Fu

¨rmetz, 2013). Yet, these different pieces do not combine

into a systematic account of the extent or severity of the crimes committed by troops:

No comprehensive quantitative data currently exist on the type and frequency of

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