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US military presence in Europe:

What is Brussels facing?

By Erkin Öncan

Since the end of the Second World War, the United States has maintained a continuous military presence in Europe. During the Cold War, the number of U.S. troops stationed across the continent peaked at around 475,000 in the late 1950s, primarily to deter the Soviet Union. However, following the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, this figure declined sharply, eventually falling to the tens of thousands.

At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. also deployed nearly 7,000 nuclear weapons throughout Europe. Today, that number has been reduced to roughly 100 B61 tactical nuclear bombs.