Nunn Urges Europe Troop Cut to 75,000

Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) said today the Pentagon should plan on cutting European troop levels by up to two-thirds in five years and suggested the Navy think about making do with as few as 10 aircraft carriers.

The influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a major address laying out his ideas about how U.S. forces should be reorganized in view of the reduced threat, also proposed a greater reliance on reserve forces and suggested informal military cooperation with France.

And Nunn, who in a few days will announce his proposals to reduce the Administration’s fiscal 1991 defense budget, said cuts proposed by House Democratic leaders are too deep, but are “within the realm of responsibility.”

There are currently about 310,000 troops in Europe, mostly in West Germany, and the United States has proposed going down to 225,000 in all of Europe, with 195,000 in the central area.

“Despite the Administration’s view that 195,000 U.S. troops in central Europe is a ‘floor’ below which the United States cannot reduce, that is not the right assumption,” Nunn said.

“I think we must begin planning for a significantly lower level in the years ahead. I agree with former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger that we should start planning on a residual force in Europe on the order of 75,000 to 100,000 troops within five years.”

Nunn, noting pressures for housing and other services in Germany and calls for lower troop levels there, added later to reporters, “I believe the question will be whether that may be too many for the Germans in three or four years.”

France long ago pulled its military forces out of NATO, preferring to chart its own military course in Europe, but recently has started joint exercises with Britain and even West Germany.

Nunn said he is not seeking a formal arrangement with France, but asked, “Why can’t the French and the Americans have occasional exercises involving French ports and airfields?”