The World : 80,000 in NATO Games
About 80,000 NATO troops, including the 35,000 soldiers of the U.S. 3rd Army Corps, began 10 days of maneuvers in West Germany’s Lower Saxony state under the eyes of Warsaw Pact observers. Code-named Certain Strike, the maneuvers are the field training part of “Reforger,” an annual exercise in which thousands of U.S. troops are airlifted to Western Europe to demonstrate America’s ability to reinforce West Germany in a time of crisis. The Warsaw Pact observers are present in accordance with a 1986 East-West agreement allowing either side to send observers if the other side conducts maneuvers involving 17,000 or more troops.
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