(Editors Note: I have often wondered what the reason was for keeping US troops in Europe at great expense to the US budget. Here is an interesting interpretation.) US troops in Europe are hostages. After WWI the United States went into an isolationist mode and stayed there through the first part of WWII. After WWII Europeans demanded that US troops stay in Europe. They were not necessarily assigned to the most strategic points where an invasion from the Soviet Union would occur. But by having US troops in Europe it was guaranteed that the United States would work to defend Europe and it was price the US had to pay for Europe to accept the US as being the major ‘decider’ in world affairs. In the 1960’s European nations purposely did not increase their defensive capabilities because they feared that the United States would decrease their military budget. Europeans also hoped that any nuclear strikes would occur ‘over their heads’ strictly between the United States and the USSR.

(Book – White House Years – Henry Kissinger)