Show Babson's J as AUTHENTIC STATEMENT W Special to THE VERNAL EXPRESS OUR TROOPS IN GERMANY Babson Park Mass The death of Dr Konrad Adenauer West Germanys Germany's strong man and father of the postwar Fed Fed- Federal eral Republic and the shocking treatment accorded Vice dent Humphrey on his recent visit to Europe provide good reason for us to focus our at at- at attention on oL that sector of the world Europe Today Europe tOday is a vastly diff diff- Brent erent continent Both the victorious vic vic- victorious and the vanquished na na- na nations are more powerful and m more re prosperous than ever be fore The scope and the com com- completeness of the resurrection from the ashes of World War II are amazing West Germany alone in a number of Import Import- Important mt ant respects Is better off than was the whole of Germany in inthe inthe the years immediately lag ing the beginning of the war Yet West Germany is fearful of the future For although Moscow has loosened its grasp on most of the East European Communist satellite states she sheI I has tightened her grip on East Germany and she still main main- maintains maintains very close ties with Red Poland WEST GERMAN STRENGTH There is no chance that the partition of Germany Into two states one West pro and fiercely capitalistic and the theother theother other militantly West anti and Solidly Communist oriented will be healed soon The two German Germanys s 's are in reality divided by quite a good deal more than the thc barbed wIre and the mines strung along their mutual hord- hord or er This heritage of Nazi ex and collapse and of Soviet Imperialism could well weIl last for several more decades But even before Stalin's death in 1953 Adenauer had made West Germany strong enough to resist Communism and Com Com- Communist threats against his gov- gov government government and its territorial in- in integrity integrity Of course the pre sence Bence of our troops helped too but there Is ample evidence that West German resoluteness and prompt moral support from all the NATO countries were the big factors governing the Soviet decision not to follow up its threats Are Our Troops Really Needed The Soviet Union is not at present rattling sabres in the direction of West Germany And undeniably West Gee Ger many Is now strong enough and prosperous enough to make greater provisions for her own military defense than was the case in the earlier postwar years ears In the light of these facts would it not be common commonsense commonsense sense for us to withdraw a sub sub- substantial portion of our military garrison In West Germany And might it not be worth worth- worthwhile while to make a reassessment of the situation to determine whether our troops are arc really needed at aU all Right now we are maintain maintain- maintaining ing upwards of a quarter of a million servicemen In West Germany more than half as many as are concentrated in Vietnam Sen Mike Mansfield of Montana Democratic majority leader strongly be Neves that so large a military commitment is not warranted and is pressing for a cutback far beyond the token reduction proposed by the Administration Drain On Our Resources It may not be feasible to pull all of our troops out of West Germany in the foresee foresee- foreseeable I able future But neither is it wise to maintain so large an Army there and to further un un- undermine dermine our shaky balance balance- payments of-payments situation by agree agree- agreeing agreeing ing to additional costly arms purchases from Britain to en en- en enable able her to support her own sizable armed forces in West Germany In this country from the grassroots on up there is urgent need to develop a much more critical approach to fed fed fed- federal eral spending including ary spending All proposals for new funds for whatever purpose must be scrutinized more closely closel And we must strongly and consistently oppose un un- un unnecessary necessary or o marginal spend spend- spending ing Failure to do this Will substantially lower our stand stand- standard ard of living and will in time reduce our nation to second class rank I |