38 TheEconomistJune 27th 2020
1“I
t’s likehaving a stroke, and then a sec-
ond one in the ambulance,” sighs Ste-
fan Weiler, economic-development chief
for Kaiserslautern, in south-west Germany.
The city was already battling high debt and
the effects of covid-19. Then came Donald
Trump’s announcement that America
would withdraw 9,500 of its 34,500 troops
stationed in Germany. Some 50,000 Ameri-
can soldiers, civil staff and family mem-
bers live in and around Kaiserslautern. The
bases employ 2,700 locals and tens of thou-
sands indirectly, from hotel-owners to
parts suppliers. “They’re our neighbours,
they rent our houses, our kids play football
together,” says Ralf Hechner, mayor of
nearby Ramstein-Miesenbach, which ad-
joins a vast American air base.
This local warmth found a national
echo. Over decades dozens of American
military bases—concentrated in Ger-
many’s south, the area of post-war Ameri-can occupation (see map on next page)—
have cemented the bond between the nato
allies. “I used to get a visit almost every year
from the [premier] of Bavaria,” says Jim
Townsend, the Pentagon’s former top offi-
cial for Europe. “We were important to him,
and he was important to us.”
Mr Trump and surrogates like Richard
Grenell, his boorish former ambassador in
Berlin, have long threatened to prune
America’s military presence in Germany.This time it looks credible. At a rally in
Oklahoma on June 20th Mr Trump justified
his proposal with a familiar charge-sheet: a
“delinquent” Germany free-rides on Amer-
ican protection, spending nugatory sums
on defence while backing a Russian gas
pipeline. “On top of it they treat us very
badly on trade,” the president huffed. A day
later Robert O’Brien, Mr Trump’s national
security adviser, attempted to retrofit a
strategic rationale onto his boss’s decision.
The cold-war practice of massive army gar-
risons with families was “obsolete”, he
wrote in the Wall Street Journal, because
“modern warfare is increasingly expedi-
tionary”. Troops were needed in Asia to
counter China, he added.
This account “would not pass muster”
at any military college, says Ben Hodges,
who commanded American army forces in
Europe until 2017. Although the reduction
would represent just 15% of its troops in
Europe, Germany is a crucial cog in Ameri-
ca’s global military machine. The Penta-
gon’s European and African commands,
which control every soldier, tank, war-
plane and warship in their domains, are
based in Stuttgart. The army’s European
headquarters are in Wiesbaden, and Ger-
many hosts five of its seven European gar-
risons, including Grafenwöhr, its largest
base outside America. Ramstein is a hubTransatlantic securityGoing home
KAISERSLAUTERN
Donald Trump’s baffling proposal to withdraw troops from GermanyEurope
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