Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today sent a letter to General Tod D. Wolters, commander of U.S. European Command, expressing concern about President Trump’s reported decision to withdraw more than a quarter of all U.S. troops from Germany. The letter requests assessments of the security risks of such a withdrawal for the United States and our European and NATO allies, particularly amid increasing Russian aggression in the region.

            “The U.S. military presence in Germany is a longstanding and critical deterrent against an increasingly aggressive Russia, and it is the cornerstone of our military and diplomatic relationships with NATO and our European allies. Such a drastic drawdown of our forces would be harmful to the security of the United States and our allies and signal to other key allies that we are unreliable partners,” wrote Feinstein.

            “It has been reported that the decision to withdraw these forces was not based on a recommendation from the Department of Defense or a similar deliberative review of the national security implications. Rather, the decision may have been made in retribution for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision not to attend the G-7 Summit.”

            Full text of the letter is available here and below.

June 10, 2020

General Tod D. Wolters
Commander, U.S. European Command
HQ EUCOM
Unit 30400
APO AE 09131

Dear General Wolters,

            I write to express my concern regarding reports that the Administration plans to withdraw 9,500 troops, or roughly 28%, of our armed forces from Germany.

            The U.S. military presence in Germany is a longstanding and critical deterrent against an increasingly aggressive Russia, and it is the cornerstone of our military and diplomatic relationships with NATO and our European allies. Such a drastic drawdown of our forces would be harmful to the security of the United States and our allies and signal to other key allies that we are unreliable partners.

            It has been reported that the decision to withdraw these forces was not based on a recommendation from the Department of Defense or a similar deliberative review of the national security implications. Rather, the decision may have been made in retribution for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision not to attend the G-7 Summit.

            Given the importance of European Command (EUCOM) to the implications of this decision, I ask that you provide responses to the following:

1. An assessment of the risks to U.S. national security; the security architecture in Europe; and the U.S. military’s ability to project force and respond to emergent concerns beyond Europe with a reduction of forces.
2. An assessment of the degradation to the security of our NATO allies and our reassurance and deterrence initiatives with NATO, such as multinational training exercises and rotational deployments of land, air, and naval assets with a reduction of forces.
3. An assessment of how the Russian government and military will respond to the drawdown of these U.S. forces over the next one to three years.

            I am grateful for your service and dedication to the men and women of our armed forces, and I very much appreciate your attention to this request.

Sincerely,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator