Can the Us Military Be Deployed on Us Soil

The proposed global redeployment of U.S. troops coupled with the open up question of how long U.Southward. forces volition stay in Iraq highlight the demand for objective data on force deployments, objectives, and results. Surprisingly, no comprehensive time series data on U.Southward. troop deployments by year and country seem to be in a single dataset. This report remedies that demand by introducing a comprehensive troop deployment dataset for 1950–2003.[1] The Troops dataset is available here: www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/troopsdb.cfm.

Highlights

• On average, 22 per centum of all U.Southward. servicemen were stationed on foreign soil during 1950–2000.In 2003, 27 percent were deployed, which is roughly the average of the 1950s. The depression point in percentage terms was 13.7 percentage in 1995, while the high points were 31 percent in 1951 (approximated) and 1968.

• There were a total of 118.8 million billets during 1950–2000.There take been an average of ii.33 million military personnel on active duty per year from 1950–2000. That is, during those 51 years, there were 118.82 million billets (with "billet" divers as one serviceman for one year). Of that full, 27.3 million billets were overseas assignments.

• In 2003, 387,920 troops were stationed on foreign soil.This figure is out of a total of 1,434,377 personnel. Deployments have ranged from a high of 1,082,777 troops in 1968 to a low of 206,002 in 1999.

• Since 1950, 54 countries have hosted at least 1,000 American troops.Troop deployments are widespread every year. During the by fifty years, 54 different countries have hosted i,000 or more U.S. troops at one bespeak. During the typical year, twenty countries hosted i,000 (or more than) U.S. soldiers. An additional 11.8 countries hosted 100 to 999 American troops. During the 1990s, troops were full-bodied in fewer countries. In 2003, 14 countries hosted ane,000 or more American troops, the same number of countries as in 2000.

• Foreign deployments accept been full-bodied in Europe and Asia.The number of U.S. troops in Europe and Asia dwarfs the scant troops stationed in the other three regions: Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas (excluding the The states). During the second half of the 20th century, 52 pct of deployed troops were in Europe and 41 percent in Asia. More than than one-tertiary of troop deployments during 1950–2000 were to Frg alone, which hosted over 10,000,000 U.S. military personnel.

V Decades of Extensive Foreign Deployments

Those who closely follow U.S. defense posture know that President George W. Bush's August 2004 announcement of a proposed global redeployment of U.Due south. troops was predated by many years of preparation and planning. "The world has inverse a great deal and our posture must modify with it," President Bush said. The plan will withdraw 70,000 troops from Europe and Asia, continuing the departure from the Cold War opinion of 1950–1990.

Although the announced moves have been characterized by some as dramatic -- even risky -- they are really role of an ongoing process of threat assessment and long-range planning at the Pentagon. For case, the major post-Cold War drawdown of U.Due south. troops in Europe occurred in the early 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of American soldiers were brought dwelling house from Germany.

The current proposed realignment is thus neither the first nor the last step in modernizing America'south global military posture, although it does raise the question anew: What is the role of the U.Due south. armed services in the earth? To begin, we should enquire what the global role of the U.South. armed forces has been in the past, and whether information technology has been effective.

However, no comprehensive source exists that could show where U.S. troops have been deployed for the past 50 years. The Heart for Data Analysis has remedied that by providing a comprehensive troop deployment dataset for 1950–2003. Although the Pentagon publishes annual troop deployment figures, information technology was necessary to compile the information into an integrated, comprehensive database to compare troop locations across different years. The integrated data series described beneath offers a unique perspective on the abiding change involved in troop deployments abroad.

On average, two.3 one thousand thousand U.Due south. troops were on duty per year from 1950–2000. Of this average, 535,000 troops (23 percent of all military personnel) were deployed on foreign soil. Chart 1 shows the fourth dimension series of the percent of troops deployed abroad. The blueprint of deployment varies over time, as deployment locations and levels answer to changing threats as well as strange wars.

Using the integrated data, we can measure how many countries host a given number of troops every year and how that design of deployment breadth evolves. Chart 2 shows the number of countries hosting 100 or more troops per year over time and the number of countries hosting 1,000 or more troops per year.

The dataset does not distinguish the blazon of personnel by armed forces branch or mission. Researchers may discover information technology useful to make such a distinction. For the almost part, U.South. troops were stationed abroad as part of the Cold State of war arrangement of deterrence through alliances with nations such as Japan, South korea, and NATO member nations. While such defensive missions were the norm, troops sent to Korea in the early 1950s and to Vietnam during the 1960s were actively at war, as are those currently in Iraq. A qualitative description of troop deployments would take to distinguish these situations from the norm. Gainsay troops can be further categorized in 2 means (at a minimum) -- attacking or defending. Not-combat missions could be further described in terms of deterrence, pacification, applied science, diplomacy, and and so on. The almost of import classification is whether U.S. troops are welcome or unwelcome by the host nation. In the overwhelming percent of cases, they have been welcome every bit role of a mutual understanding.

Asymmetric Posture in Five World Regions

The commitment of American soldiers has been consistent in Europe, varied in Asia, and shallow in the other parts of the world. Chart 3 gives a decade-by-decade accounting of troop deployment past major region. The number of U.S. troops in Europe and Asia dwarfs the scant troops stationed in Africa, the Middle Eastward, and the Americas (excluding the United States). During the second half of the 20th century, 52 percent of deployed troops were in Europe and 41 per centum in Asia. Most of those deployments can be traced to a scattering of countries: Germany, Japan, and Vietnam. Many nations still take thousands of U.South. troops on their soil every bit role of long-continuing alliances, but many of the countries that accept been dwelling to American forces would be a surprise to contemporary perceptions, because they include France, Kingdom of spain, Portugal, and even Libya.

Germany, by a wide margin, has the highest troop-year total for every individual decade and for the entire 1950–2003 period. Nautical chart 4 is a graphical listing of the xx countries in order of the full corporeality of troops. Nippon, Republic of korea, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom circular out the top five countries that accept hosted the near U.South. armed services personnel and are included in Chart v as fourth dimension series over the entire menses. Evident in Nautical chart five is the rapid rise and refuse of the number of troops sent to Vietnam -- from less than 1,000 personnel in 1961 to 537,000 in 1968, and then quickly down to zero seven years later. Chart 6 shows time series for the side by side v countries with the highest total deployments: France, the Philippines, Italy, Panama, Thailand, and Espana.

The following subsections describe in some detail the changing strength composition in the five regions over the by 54 years.

Region 1: Eastern asia. The historical roots of the U.Due south. are almost entirely European, but the 20th century saw a deepening engagement into the affairs of Asia. Most of that date focused on Japan and the postwar occupation, only the 1950s were also dominated by the Korean War. As a effect of these ii developments, U.S. bases have go a seemingly permanent characteristic of E Asian security. The data ironically indicate a precipitous pullback of U.S. forces from Asia in the 1970s and 1980s, only this is primarily driven by the end of the Vietnam disharmonize and complete withdrawal from there. Troop commitments to Japan and Due south Korea formed a boulder of U.S. engagement in Northeast Asia.

What might have been viewed as an occupation of Japan later on 1945 was instead transformed by the threat of communist China and the Soviet Union into a mutually beneficial security arrangement and strong alliance. Other postwar relationships besides evolved into long-standing alliances involving heavy U.Southward. troop commitments, notably in the Philippines and Taiwan.

The U.Southward. part in Korea was motivated past the sudden set on from North korea, which ultimately served to validate the strategy of containment, that is, the demand to aggressively incorporate communist ambitions. Only 510 servicemen were based in South Korea in 1950, prior to the attack. U.Due south. Department of Defense force (DOD) records prove that 326,863 troops were deployed in S Korea in 1953, a number that stabilized betwixt l,000 and 60,000 in the 1960s and 1970s. A slow drawdown continued as troops averaged 40,000 in the 1980s and 35,000 in the 1990s.

America positioned thousands of troops in Hong Kong and Taiwan, abruptly starting in 1954. At their tiptop, there were 4,539 American soldiers in Hong Kong in 1957, which were quickly drawn down to levels of 290 and then 26 over the next ii years. The situation was similar in Taiwan, with a sudden buildup from 811 to 4,174 troops in 1954, peaking in 1958 at nineteen,000 and so stabilizing between 4,000 and 10,000 until 1977. All American forces were pulled out in 1979, a withdrawal that clearly began in 1973 after President Nixon's diplomatic opening with the People's Republic of Prc.

The war in Vietnam brought hundreds of thousands of American armed forces personnel from all branches to many countries in Southeast Asia. Hundreds of soldiers had been in Vietnam since the finish of World War II, but 1956 marked the starting time of new deployments into Cambodia and Laos. Troop levels in Vietnam proper accelerated sharply in 1962, peaked in 1968 at over 500,000 servicemen, and and then declined sharply every yr after, ending with complete pullout in 1975. Thailand besides saw large deployments of tens of thousands of Americans during 1962–1975, when it hosted large U.S. airbases that were heavily used to support combat operations in Vietnam.

The Philippines hosted a steady level of xv,000 U.S. billets per twelvemonth throughout four decades, with large Air Force and Navy bases. Then a series of protests, capped by a devastating volcano eruption that devastated the bases, severed the deployment human relationship after 1992.

Region two: Europe.It is impossible to consider the defense posture of American forces in Europe without being impressed by the dominant position of Germany, which was split up in half by post-1945 occupations of Soviets in the East and the other Allies in the Westward. As relations hardened between the Common cold State of war adversaries, Germany became the master potential battleground for World War III and U.S. troop levels tripled from 1950 to 1953. Every yr for nearly 4 decades, one-quarter of a million troops were billeted in West Germany, simply by 1993 the number had dropped to 105,254. In 2000, simply 69,203 American military personnel remained.

French republic had some 50,000 U.S. troops based on its soil for decades, but that number was reduced to less than 100 during the mid-1960s.

Across the residue of Europe, in that location have been many different hosting relationships over the half-century. Britain saw the withdrawal of tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers after 1990. In Italia, the number of U.Southward. servicemen has remained remarkably stable to this mean solar day, averaging most 12,000. In contrast, a similar deployment level in Kingdom of spain of nine,000 troops was trimmed sharply to two,000 subsequently 1989. The end of the Cold War too led to U.S. personnel reductions of fifty percent or more in countries such as Portugal, Iceland, Greece, and the Netherlands. The major exception was the deployment of xv,003 soldiers to Republic of bosnia and herzegovina in 1996 and the steady presence of 3,000 troops there ever since.

Region 3: Middle Due east. Turkey is categorized here as a Middle Eastern state, but has equally every bit much European heritage. Turkey's close friendship with the U.S. during the Cold War included the basing of 5,000 to 10,000 American troops from 1957 to 1992, when a slow drawdown began. Roughly 5,000 American troops were in Libya per year during the 1950s and 1960s. The only other major deployments to the Eye East were in Kuwait and Saudi arabia beginning in 1990. In recent years, the U.S. has deployed troops to new bases in Qatar and Bahrain.

Even so, it would be a fault to think American forces take not been widely deployed in the Middle E. Thousands have been based in Iran, Pakistan, Morocco, and Kingdom of saudi arabia over the decades. Hundreds more have been based consistently in Arab republic of egypt, Lebanon, Israel, and India.

Region iv: Africa. Africa is the clearest case of non-involvement past U.S. military forces during the past five decades. A handful of African nations saw very minor deployments beginning in the 1960s, but naught on the scale of strategic basing seen in other continents. The exceptions to this rule are Great socialist people's libyan arab jamahiriya (described above) and Ethiopia, which hosted over i,000 American soldiers every year from 1957 to 1973. By the 1980s, most African nations had small-scale troop deployments of five to 50 American soldiers. This may signal more than appointment and is certainly attributable to more than meliorate recordkeeping past the Pentagon, given that pocket-size deployments in other regions in the 1950s and 1960s were recorded.

Region five: Americas.American forces have been broadly, lightly based throughout Latin America since 1950. The strongest relationships in the hemisphere accept been with Canada, Panama, and Bermuda, each with basing commitments of 3,000 to 15,000. The number of U.Southward. troops stationed in Canada declined sharply from 1965 to 1975 and is now only about 150. Most other nations in the region hosted U.S. forces twelvemonth afterwards twelvemonth -- usually less than 100 -- and none had annual billets over 1,000.

Assay

The President's proposed redeployment of 70,000 troops from foreign countries to domestic bases has been greeted as a major movement, but information technology needs to be kept in perspective. An average of 311,870 troops were stationed in Europe per year during 1986–1990. That forcefulness was slashed by 2-thirds after the Berlin Wall barbarous, to an average of 109,452 troops per year during 1996–2000.

U.S. troops were disengaged (i.e., reduced) from Africa in the early 1970s. In Latin America, the disengagement was sharper, failing from an average of 37,000 soldiers annually in the 1950s to 28,000 in the 1960s to a steady 14,000–sixteen,000 thereafter. Troop deployments to the Heart E were cut in half during the 1970s and 1980s, but redoubled in the 1990s.

A terminal belittling consideration is the bear upon of U.S. troops on foreign countries. In postwar Germany and Nippon, the goal of the U.South. presence was Common cold State of war peace through deterrent strength. One tin can argue that the mission was largely successful, not only for the U.S., but also for the economic development of the two respective regions.

On the other hand, one could also argue that the dominance of American forces tin serve as a crutch of inaction by others. For case, the tragedy of genocide in Bosnia was unchecked without U.S. leadership. Yet is the primacy of U.South. engagement in addressing obvious atrocities a healthy development?

No other military in earth history has been so widely deployed as that of the Usa. Troop deployments are overwhelmingly supportive of host countries, and warm relations between soldiers and local populations are the norm. However, the first priority in deployment strategy is non a particular strange government's desire to go along a sure number of American troops in its land, only the American need to align its forces against contemporary and future threats. Meliorate data about the deployment levels of American forces will hopefully contribute to an understanding of the consequences of past strategies and the development of future strategies.

Tim Kane, Ph.D., is Research Boyfriend in Macroeconomics in the Middle for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation.

Appendix
Information and Methodology

The original almanac data come from the Statistical Information Analysis Sectionalisation (SIAD) of the Directorate for Data Operations and Reports (DIOR) in the U.S. Section of Defence force. The SIAD makes the data publicly available via its Web site,[2] although information technology is available only on an annual basis, not equally a time series. Information for years 1950 through 1977 are in Microsoft Excel format, and data for post-obit years are in Adobe Acrobat format.

Our first research objective was to create a comprehensive disaggregated table showing how many U.South. troops were deployed to each unique country during every twelvemonth studied. The disaggregation allows one to correctly account for countries that underwent changes in name or geographic boundary. For example, modern Germany is a fusion of one-time Eastward Frg with West Germany, while at the finish of 1991 the Soviet Union disintegrated into 15 independent republics. The disaggregated table includes 250 countries in rows, along with 54 columns representing troop counts for the years 1950–2003.

The 2d objective was the creation of an integrated table which aggregates varied country names and associated information into a single time serial. For example, the Japan information include data on Nippon, as well equally Okinawa and the Bonin Islands, which were counted separately during the 1950s and 1960s. Scotland (1954–1955), Trieste (1950–1954), and the Azores (1950–1969) were uniquely identified in DOD records and were integrated into the United Kingdom, Italy, and Portugal records, respectively, for the "integrated" spreadsheet. Others like Myanmar take integrated data for Burma, its longstanding land name in earlier records. Then there are cases of continuation on the integrated sheet, such as Russia, which denotes contemporary Russia and information from the quondam Soviet Matrimony. The resulting integrated sheet gives a clearer overview of U.S. troop deployments over the past 55 years.

The integrated data accept some inherent limitations:

• Almanac troop counts are a snapshot of the level of military personnel stationed ashore during ane month of the year. For the 1950s information, the reference date was generally June 30, while afterward years used September 30, which is the end of the fiscal year. Nosotros causeless that each count represents a full troop-year or "billet." For case, the count of 53,074 in France in 1962 represents the total billets, not the total number of U.S. personnel who served in France that twelvemonth. Exactly 53,000 men may have served one-year tours, or twice every bit many private soldiers could take served half-twelvemonth tours of duty, but the number of billets is the same in either case.
• Original information for some years practice not distinguish betwixt "aground" and "adrift," while other years practice. Nosotros made every try to reconcile the values and to count the personnel really within the country.
• Original data for the years 1951 and 1952 are non available, and we used approximated values. DOD officials speculate that the data for troop locations during the Korean War were either never recorded or perchance destroyed at some indicate for security reasons.
• Gimmicky data understandably do not offer bully detail on placement of personnel in the Eye Due east and simply count the full number involved in Operation Iraqi Liberty, which nosotros assign wholly to Republic of iraq.

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Source: https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/global-us-troop-deployment-1950-2003

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