U.S. to Shut, Scale Back 63 Bases Abroad

The Pentagon announced plans Friday to close or cut back operations at 63 more installations abroad, most of them in Europe, as it continues to thin old allied defenses against a once-feared Soviet invasion.

The step brings to 559 the number of military sites worldwide affected by the Pentagon’s efforts to reduce its bases overseas. While the network of U.S. military bases grew steadily in the postwar period, the collapse of the Soviet Union, falling defense budgets and rising nationalism among U.S. allies have dramatically reversed that process.

By mid-decade, one in three U.S. bases in Europe will be smaller or out of business, the Pentagon said.

The cutbacks announced Friday would affect U.S. facilities in Germany, Britain, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and South Korea. The greatest number of closures will be in Germany, including housing complexes in Wertheim, Koblenz and Idar-Oberstein. Operations will be scaled back at Amberg and Stuttgart.

The Pentagon said it would bring more than 6,000 troops home and remove from the Defense Department payroll 3,300 civilian employees, most of them foreign nationals. Officials released no timetable for the reductions.

Since January, 1990, more than 8,000 civilian employees have lost jobs because of the closing of military sites, mainly in Europe. In recent months, U.S. troops have been withdrawn from Europe at a rate of about 500 a week.

The U.S. decisions to abandon bases have been welcomed by many Germans, who are eager to redevelop the facilities for commercial and public uses. U.S. military officials said they have considered those other uses in deciding which facilities to close.

The latest round of trimming also means stepped-up withdrawals from Britain, with the United States closing Air Force and Navy sites in England and Scotland.

The Defense Department will retain rights to reopen some facilities, in keeping with arguments made by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and others that the United States must preserve the ability to expand its network of bases abroad if world tensions should rise.

Many lawmakers are pressing for even deeper cuts now that the threat from the Soviet Union has disappeared. American military leaders have countered, however, that U.S. interests still face a range of potential military threats and insist that at least 150,000 American troops remain in Europe after 1995. The United States currently has roughly 240,000 troops in Europe.