Hi Walter,

>>>I cannot disagree with that. But what are you trying to say with that? The europeans already has nuclear programs before the war, but suspended that becuase of the US presence: There was less need to develop a nuclear program.
>
>>I wasn't talking nukes, I was speaking to ground and air forces.
>
>IMO, (but correct me if I'm wrong), the US presence in the cold war served two main purposes
>1. To have presence in europe, so to be at the source of information.
>2. To give a political signal to russia to prevent them from doing stupid things or else they would be in war with the US as well.

In point 2 you are totally correct. I dunno about point 1, I think that was more of a diplomatic / consular function.

>Not sure how many troops were there, but the force of the american on esspecially the ground troops were insignificant compared to the military power of the forces already present. It served a geo political purpose.

Well, here you're wrong. American conventional firepower vastly outnumbered local European forces. The local European forces were paltry with some exceptions. But you're right in that it did serve a geopolitical purpose. From the American perspective it was a message to the Warsaw Pact - "Mess with our friends and you are toast". But more eloquent ;-)