Payments Are the Problem

The changed world circumstances were also reflected last week in Bonn, as U.S. and British delegations sat down with West German officials to bargain for more German marks for Allied soldiers. Almost forgotten were the old fears of a sudden rush of Soviet tanks into Berlin. In fact, Britain and the U.S. were clearly more concerned with their balance-of-payments problems than they were with the Communists.

Britain is so hard pressed that it insists that Germany buy enough goods to offset the $215 million-per-year cost of the 55,000-man British Army of the Rhine. Otherwise, they intend to start immediate reductions, trimming the BAOR by perhaps 50% within the next 18 months or so.

The U.S. threatens to reduce the 218,000-man Seventh Army by 25% unless the Germans come through with substantial purchases. If cuts must come, the Americans hope that they can make them without impairing the army's fighting efficiency; the first reductions would probably be made among supply and support troops. U.S. planners argue that cutbacks would not matter greatly, since by 1970, when the 700-troop-capacity C-5A jets come into service, the U.S. will be able to lift troops overnight from strategic reserves in the U.S. to prepared combat positions in West Germany.

The slightest hint of Allied troop withdrawals unhinges the West Germans, who do not share their Allies' conviction that the Soviets have grown less aggressive. But the Germans argue that they cannot finance heavy purchases of British and U.S. equipment. Unless they are willing to undergo some belt tightening to raise additional funds, they may be forced to acquiesce to a thinning out of Allied troops.

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