ABSTRACT
Signs of poverty first appeared among US forces in Germany in the early 1970s, but did not become severe enough to constitute a major morale problem until the latter part of that decade. The link between the poverty phenomenon and the dollar-mark exchange rate is extremely close. The poverty phenomenon coupled with the chronic shortage and high price of accommodations produced distressing results in the early 1980s. The combined effects of GI poverty and dilapidated physical facilities upon military morale in West Germany have been devastating. The inadequacy of US facilities is exacerbated by the surrounding affluence of West German society and by comparison with the newer, more luxuriant facilities of the West German army and air force. The poverty-induced low self-image of US service personnel, coupled with their awareness that the West German image of them is becoming ever more negative, translates into a morale problem of major dimensions.
