"No. There were NOT there to keep Germany in check. They would NOT have been able to do so if they were. They were in the MIDDLE of NATO. It would have been simple to cut their supply lines."
not hardly the american troops had battlefield nukes deployed to "stall" the advance until reinforcements could arrive from here. From 1945 to about 1965 the only thing keeping the sovs out of ALL of eaurope was the boom. Take away that slim advantage and numerical as well as tactical AT THAT TIME was on the Soviet side. The Soviets were not interested in marching into france, the internationale was doing that home grown in every country in eaurope as planned at the 1936 congress. The troops were stationed in germany to keep the fscking germans from boiling east again.
thanx,
bill