[Alberta's Child]

I don’t know how you’re measuring “occupation.” 1991 is not a good point in time for measuring this sort of thing based on raw numbers of military personnel, since the U.S. was still in the process of repositioning hardware and hundreds of thousands of personnel after the Gulf War.

I would ask one simple question: How many U.S. military installations are there in Europe today, compared to 1990?

… it was the “occupied” asking for more US troops.

Did they want them there for protection, or to support their economies — sort of like American tourists in fatigues?

[Alas Babylon!]

Wrong. I got to Europe in 1991 precisely to CLOSE most of those bases. I did a presentation at ESC/AFIC Headquarters on all the places we vacated in 1995. The US military presence in Europe went from 3000K in 1990 to 75K when I left in 1997.

Many of those places were emptied due to Desert Shield, with multi-divisions and wings went to Saudi Arabia never to return to Europe after 1991.

I went to practically every place that had an Air Force Intelligence presence to help shut it down (my job was classified circuit management). This included MANY Army bases and kasernes.

The planning to close them were all based on the Soviet’s demise but the actual evacuation in the 1990s took a couple of years to implement.

I spent so many TDYs in all over the UK, Berlin, all over Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and the Netherlands—I can converse (simple) in each language. I can order beer, wine and spirits easily!

[buwaya]

The bulk of those units sent to the Gulf returned to the US or were disbanded, as were many units in Europe and the US throughout the 1990s.

In the end only a small fraction of the US forces permanently stationed in Europe in the last years of the Cold War remained by the 2010s. I would count noses between, say, 1991 and 2016, or 1989 and 2016 if you like.

The demand for troops mainly came from the Eastern Euros, such as the Poles. They have wanted and been calling for more US units permanently stationed for decades.

[buwaya]

https://www.europeafrica.army.mil/Mission-History/#:~:text=The%20command%20shrank%20from%20213%2C000,close%20in%20the%20years%20ahead.

[buwaya]

“In 1992 alone, about 70,000 Soldiers redeployed to the 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.”

Just a start. You can fill out the rest of the story.