![]() Very few of the Eastern European native speakers in Special Forces (SF) in the early days were Lodge Act men. The purpose of this first installment of a two-part article is to explain the Lodge Act, to show why enlistment goals were not met, to describe the recruiting, testing, selection, enlistment and preparation for service in Army replacement centers in Germany, and the shipment of the alien enlisted soldiers to the United States for basic recruit training. 4 A Red Scare swept the United States in the early 1950s. 3 This act provided more than a hundred Eastern European soldiers to Army Special Forces and Psychological Warfare units between 19. The initial act authorized the voluntary enlistment of 2,500 unmarried foreign national males in the U.S. The first and only step towards a VFC was passed by Congress on 30 June 1950, five days after North Korea invaded the South. Interest at home was not that great either. ![]() Although some American legislators perceived its merit, postwar Western European governments regarded it as a possible economic burden and potential threat. A VFC, filled with stateless males, would serve as a bulwark against Communism in Europe. Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., the Republican junior senator from Massachusetts, had been pushing to form a Volunteer Freedom Corps (VFC) since 1948. senator who had seen how foreign units had been integrated into the German and Russian militaries envisioned the creation of similar postwar units in West Germany. These people filled DP camps throughout West Germany. However, a large East European population refused to return to their Soviet-occupied countries. To provide the stability necessary for postwar economic recovery, Western Allies resettled or repatriated the bulk of them between 19. The Western Allies simply referred to them collectively as “displaced persons,” or “DPs.” Many released prisoners of war (POWs) trying to get home or into Western zones of Germany chose to join the population Diaspora. After World War II, some fourteen million refugees formed a huge stateless population in Western Europe.
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