People are getting all nostalgic about the glory days of American support for NATO and our European allies. Seriously? Let's go back in time and see what can only be the efforts of an Orange Terminator to kill NATO at the height of the Soviet threat.
It's a darned shame America is spoiling relations with Europe. Good times. Good times:
For several years now Congress has felt that our allies should increase their contribution to NATO’s defense by assuming more of the [Page 268] costs associated with the US troops stationed in Europe. This conviction has resulted in repeated calls upon our allies to offset the balance of payments drain resulting from our troop deployments in Europe and to reimburse us for the added budgetary costs of stationing our troops there rather than in the US. The highest priority has been given to balance of payments relief, and in 1974 Congress enacted the Jackson-Nunn amendment which directed that US force levels in Europe be reduced by the same percentage that our allies failed to fully offset the US FY 74 military balance of payments deficit in NATO Europe.
That was amateur hour compared the Senator Mansfield's efforts:
Despite the reluctance to spend more than minimal amounts on military capabilities in most European NATO countries the issue did not become a major concern in the U.S. Congress between 1951 and 1966. It was only in the late 1960s and early 1970s that proposals - including the Mansfield Resolutions and Amendments - were introduced in the Senate calling for a substantial reduction in the number of U.S. troops in Europe.
My memory is that in one year, Mansfield's proposal failed by a single vote in the Senate. And that was when the Soviet communist version of Russian imperialism was sitting in the heart of Germany a mere 100 miles from the Rhine!
We're watching the history sausage being made in real time. Breathe, people.
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NOTE: I made the image with Bing.
