American GIs: Gangsters and Heroes?

American soldiers abroad referred to themselves as "GIs," or in some cases, "GI Joes." The name actually came from the G.I. stamp on military materials, which stood for galvanized iron but later came to represent members of the armed forces. In fact, some servicemen used it sarcastically to represent their belief that they were "just mass-produced products of the government."

The first American GIs arrived in Britain in 1942, bringing along with them candy, Coca-Cola, cigarettes, gum, and an affinity for lavish spending. The majority of them were there for a good time: a GI veteran Lester Gaiter recalled that they would "crash their parties, drink their beer, [and] flirt with their women." GIs were paid more than five times that of a British soldier, which allowed them to appear wealthy and rich to the British public.

WWII was the first time for the majority of British citizens to see Americans in person. Before the war, most British people only knew Americans as the gangsters and heroes from movie screens, people who existed thousands of miles away in the other hemisphere. As Kenneth Pullen, a citizen of London, put it, "it came as a shock" because nobody knew "what an American looked like face to face." In fact, the Times newspaper had to explain to its readers that GIs were "friendly and simple," not "Hollywood stars or two-gun Texans with five-gallon hats." Many Brits just didn't know what to expect, that since America was so remote, they had no opinions or even prejudices against Americans.

The few wartime years changed all these preconceptions about Americans, where over three million Americans passed through Britain. Despite speaking a common language, British people and Americans had a number of differences. For example, women reported that GIs had odd eating habits, flaunted their money, and described them as boisterous and brash. They would leave their money on pub counters rather than hide their money, injecting so much money into the British economy that it brought them "some relief from the misery of the time." They hosted parties and spent time with British girls, and these girls were reported to have seen the US as a "magic country" where people were prone to "spoil[ing] their girls." This brought GIs some resentment, as people looked down on their tendencies to "throw their money around indiscriminately."

With their arrival came the spread of musical influences, popularizing the music genres of R&B, blues, and jazz. This music had been seen as "edgy" and wasn't too popular on British radio, but with the number of parties, dances, and other such social events, those genres started to become appreciated by the general public.

The presence of GIs in Britain, and Europe as a whole, influenced their views on Americans and humanized the citizens of a country which had seemed oceans away to Europeans. They were no longer mythical creatures akin to dragons and unicorns, but real human beings who were, in more than one way, similar to them. The war may have torn countries and even continents apart, but it brought the Allies together and allowed them to form strong relationships that last even till the present day.

Sources: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20160819
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