Evident Bias in Thomas J. Kehoe and E. James Kehoe, "Crimes Committed by U.S. Soldiers in Europe, 1945–1946"

The horrifying record of rape by Soviet troops in postwar Germany has long been a matter of record. What is new is the argument that the behavior of American GIs in the European Theater of Operations was little better than that of the Russians. Inspired by a new study alleging that some 190,000 Germ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of interdisciplinary history 2016-11, Vol.47 (3), p.381-384
Main Author: Dykstra, Robert R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Armed forces
Comment and Controversy
Europe
James, Thomas
Kehoe, James
Military history
Rape
United States
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The horrifying record of rape by Soviet troops in postwar Germany has long been a matter of record. What is new is the argument that the behavior of American GIs in the European Theater of Operations was little better than that of the Russians. Inspired by a new study alleging that some 190,000 German girls and women were raped by U.S. servicemen, the Kehoes maintain that official military statistics from 1945–46 confirm such high levels of sexual predation. It can now be said with confidence, they assert, that "U.S. soldiers raped and assaulted civilians with frightening abandon." Yet this generalization and others like it are not supported by the authors' own data, which instead repeatedly display low rape figures. The Kehoes' reliance on theorizing to overcome this deficiency is clearly unconvincing.
ISSN:0022-1953
1530-9169
DOI:10.1162/JINH_c_01016