Civilians who 'entice' or 'procure' or in any substantial way assist US military deserters are liable to severe punishment, including prison terms and fines.

Title 18, Section 1381, Uniform Code of Military Justice (1951)

Number 56 Queen Anne Street, just off Oxford Circus, is today a set of Grade II listed, high-end business offices for rent. But in the late 1960s, during the Vietnam War, this elegant Georgian building housed, among other tenants, the Royal Asiatic Society, as well as my own London 'station' on the underground railway for escaping GI deserters. We were breaking the law, under the US Uniform Code of Military Justice and Nato's Visiting Forces Act; theoretically, in a time of war, we could be shot.

LRB 9 October 2008 | PDF Download