U.S. base construction produced local economic booms in host regions.

Evidence

Before the arrival of U.S. troops in Rheinland-Pfalz, for example, the rural state was Germany’s “traditional poorhouse.” After more than a hundred thousand GIs and family members arrived between 1950 and 1951, rapid construction created thousands of new jobs. Unemployment, which had been over 10 percent in the region and over 22 percent in the town of Baumholder, vanished amid a gold rush atmosphere. With a strong U.S. dollar, Americans splashed money around the local economy. By 1955, they were spending almost 5 million a year (the equivalent of 44 million today) in Baumholder alone, a town of around twenty-five hundred that came to host an average of thirty thousand U.S. troops and family members. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 126

Categorization

• CANDY: A town of 2,500 hosting 30,000 troops spending $5M a year is a great striking contrast for conversation.
• XREF: connects to: Postwar boom industries concentrated in a few grand production regions — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 790