Description
Throughout the 20th century, American male soldiers returned home from wars with foreign-born wives in tow, frequently from allied but now and then from enemy nations, leading to a new, official category of immigrant: the “allied” war bride. These brides began appearing en masse after World War I, peaked after World War II, and persisted in the course of the Korean and Vietnam Wars. GIs also met and married former “enemy” women under conditions of postwar occupation, even if now and then the USA government banned such unions.
In this comprehensive, complex history of war brides in 20th-century American history, Susan Zeiger uses relationships between American male soldiers and foreign women as a lens to view larger issues of sexuality, race, and gender in United States foreign relations. Entangling Alliances draws on a wealthy array of sources to track how war and postwar anxieties about power and national identity have long been projected onto war brides, and how these anxieties translate into public policies, particularly immigration.