Countdown to 75: US Army Europe and post-Cold War

By U.S. Army Center for Military History and U.S. Army EuropeMay 3, 2017

Countdown to 75: US Army Europe and post-Cold War
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Countdown to 75: US Army Europe and post-Cold War
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On November 9, 1989, crowds of elated Berliners surged back and forth through ever-enlarging holes in the wall that for so long had divided their city. Similar, albeit smaller, demonstrations also occurred all along the border separating the former East Germany from the West.

American soldiers observing these festive affairs soon realized how much was changing in the strategic environment that had brought them to Germany in the first place.

Within a few years, Soviet troops evacuated all of their former satellites in the Warsaw Pact countries, those satellites reconfigured themselves as independent and democratic states, the Soviet Union itself collapsed into fifteen different countries, and Germany reunited into a single nation.

With little notice the Cold War ended and with it the American military's forty-year preoccupation with containing communist expansion. In hot wars and in cold, two generations of American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines had secured the line separating the free world from the communist bloc; now this frontier suddenly disappeared everywhere except in Korea.

Soon the governments of the United States and its allies enthusiastically pursued a "peace dividend," slashing military budgets and manpower levels in order to reduce taxes or divert resources to other pursuits.

In 1992 alone, about 70,000 U.S. Army Europe Soldiers redeployed to the continental U.S. with about 90,000 family members. The command shrank from 213,000 Soldiers in 1990 to 122,000 in 1992. From 858 installations in 1990, U.S. Army Europe went down to only 415 in 1993 with more scheduled to close in the years ahead.

After the Gulf War and the subsequent drawdowns, U.S. Army Europe faced a wholly different challenge in Europe. The command was engaged in humanitarian support operations, to include disaster relief and rescue and recovery, peacekeeping and non-combatant evacuations. Between 1990 and 1993 the command supported 42 deployments, which involved a total of 95,579 personnel.

We'll be highlighting U.S. Army Europe's history over the next 5 weeks as we countdown to our 75th birthday. Follow along with #75Strong!

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About us: U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned in its 51 country area of responsibility to advance American strategic interests in Europe and Eurasia. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships and enhance global security.

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