Billy the Kid plays for NATO: US military sporting experience in France, from the Old to the New Frontier (1893-1961) - Archive ouverte HAL
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2017

Billy the Kid plays for NATO: US military sporting experience in France, from the Old to the New Frontier (1893-1961)

Résumé

The purpose of this presentation is to assess the influence of border-crossing on US sporting traditions in the military, in light of the evolution of public diplomacy practices in France. In the late 19th century, the Conquest of the West brought a new mindset among Americans, based on ideals of exceptionalism, egalitarianism, as well as on emancipation from European intellectual and cultural authorities. Frederick J. Turner’s so-called “Frontier thesis” (1893) helped create a national narrative, which became a milestone to understand the projection of American culture abroad. The two major conflicts of the 20th century not only led the United States to cross the Atlantic and demonstrate its leadership on the global scene, but also forced the army to develop a joint military and civilian public diplomacy strategy in which athletes played the role of sporting ambassadors, especially during the Cold War. In this presentation, we will question the importance of the Frontier thesis in relation to military sporting competitions, which progressively became a place of cultural hybridization between 1940 and the end of the 1960s. We will analyze, within the framework of postcolonial scholar Homi Bhabha , how – and if – young American soldiers helped spread baseball and basketball beyond the borders of their bases located in France. Using unpublished documents from the Department of State and Department of Defense, as well as original archives from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), we will show how the United States built a network dedicated to projecting an image of modernity and identifying the purpose behind the joint civilian and military public diplomacy strategy. Then, we will contrast our results with oral history interviews of NATO sportsmen and clippings from military and civilian local and mainstream newspapers, to expose the reasons why average sportsmen agreed to becoming unofficial sporting ambassadors. In fact, while sporting events and modernist cultural operations were somehow perceived as part of an American “colonial” expansion, NATO, State and Defense departments’ archival records seem to show that the projection of America’s sporting culture was closely monitored and resorted to mechanisms that were later identified as working towards the formulation of a “spectacle of the Other,” as sociologist Stuart Hall wrote. However, several young servicemen competed against French, East and West-European civilian teams, fostering cultural contacts outside the strict US-controlled public diplomacy network. As we intend to demonstrate, this trailblazing effort is the culmination of an innovative process meant to blur the existing borders around the military base through important media coverage. Set at the crossroads of diplomatic, cultural and sports history, this presentation lays the groundwork for the case of sporting hybridization on NATO basketball courts, rejuvenating the Frontier to spread American sports and influence in and around France.

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Histoire
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Dates et versions

hal-03345902 , version 1 (15-09-2021)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03345902 , version 1

Citer

François Doppler-Speranza. Billy the Kid plays for NATO: US military sporting experience in France, from the Old to the New Frontier (1893-1961). European Committee of Sports History, University of Strasbourg, Dec 2017, Strasbourg, France. ⟨hal-03345902⟩

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