The arrival of families forced the military to build self-contained American-style towns on bases.

Evidence

At first, the arrival of soldiers’ family members in Germany actually inflamed tensions with locals because the presence of the newcomers meant the requisitioning of more German land. Attempts to ease the effects of the occupation on Germans—and to exert more control over soldiers—led the military to segregate GIs and their families on bases further removed from German society. As the military realized that the bases badly lacked medical facilities, schools, shopping, and other facilities for families, a massive building campaign followed in Germany and, soon, around the world. The aim was to create replicas of American towns so GIs and their families would feel at home overseas. Housing, shopping centers, recreational services, and hospitals sprang up on bases worldwide. The military established a Family Services Program and created an entire overseas school system. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 124

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEFINE: Explains the origin of the ‘Little America’ concept central to this chapter.

Related

• Family arrivals pushed the military to build self-contained Little Americas (similarity 0.97)
• Self-contained family base communities normalized and legitimized permanent overseas occupation (similarity 0.88)
• Little America bases normalized permanent overseas troop presence as legitimate. (similarity 0.87)
• The 1945 family-reunification decision created today’s overseas base communities (similarity 0.84)
• Little America bases insulate troops and transform host-nation culture and economies (similarity 0.83)
• Comfortable family-oriented base life normalized permanent troop deployments abroad (similarity 0.83)
• Family-friendly base construction made the permanent worldwide troop deployment politically acceptable (similarity 0.82)
• Overseas bases operate as insulated self-contained American towns (similarity 0.80)
• Little Americas normalized permanent peacetime overseas troop deployment (similarity 0.79)
• Allowing military families overseas aimed to solve fraternization and home-front anger (similarity 0.79)
• Little America bases function as gated simulacrums of American suburbia that reshape host economies (similarity 0.79)
• Overseas bases spawn self-perpetuating communities dependent on their continued operation (similarity 0.79)
• The militarized suburban base lifestyle originated as a 1940s response to occupation tensions (similarity 0.78)