Word: mansfield
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...heart of Mansfield's case is the huge cost-$14 billion annually-of the country's NATO commitments and its deleterious effect upon the U.S. balance of payments and the stability of the dollar. He points out that the U.S. annually incurs such NATO expenses as $2.9 million in land taxes on bases in Great Britain and Germany and $265 million for the employment of European nationals by U.S. forces. "In other words," he says, "we are paying them to stay there and defend them...
What happens when the U.S. comes up against a financial crunch while the economy is suffering? "They can give us a run on the dollar," Mansfield says. "They can make it difficult for us by increasing prices on American products exported to Europe. My amendment is designed to bring about an early relief to our pressing payments deficits abroad. If these troops that will be returned are disbanded upon their return to the U.S., it will represent a further gain for our budget as well as our balance of payments. The financial savings in that case could well...
...Mansfield retorts that "our forces in Europe have been inflated and musclebound, with far more logistical than combat capability." He notes that among U.S. troops with NATO in Europe, there is one general or flag officer for every 2,343 men, whereas when he served in the Army, he says, the average ratio was one colonel for every 3,000 men. Mansfield's point is that the U.S. military in Europe has grown top-heavy. "It is my conviction," he says, "that trimming away the fat in the form of excess supplies and headquarters will result in a leaner...
...real difficulty, according to Rogers, is the long-run diplomatic consequence of Mansfield's proposal. Any unilateral and massive troop withdrawal, he contends, would lead the Soviets to believe that "we're leaving the world," and create among Western Europeans a tremendous crisis of confidence in the U.S. It would, Rogers says, be a "major disaster for this country to let down NATO, which is as essential to our defense as to Western Europe's." He claims that the one thing forcing the Soviets to settle...
...should pick up more of the burden is valid. It is incongruous for the U.S. to maintain 300,000 troops in Western Europe 25 years after World War II; obviously, there should be a reduction. The Administration, in essence, agrees. But Nixon has a strong case for calling the Mansfield amendment precipitate. The U.S. cutback need not be as abrupt as Mansfield would have it; preferably, the President should be free to execute it at his own pace, winning whatever concessions he can from the East bloc...