During the 1950s the American GIs in Germany were, in sharp contrast to the controversies surrounding the British troop commitment from 1955 onward, not a source of serious conflict between stationing and host countries - apart from one significant episode, which forms the subject of this chapter. Within a few years after the end of World War II, the American military presence became an integral feature of the European postwar settlement. Divergences on their military and political roles were usually fought out in internal strategic debates that did not significantly affect troop levels. This relative calm and stability does not indicate, however, that in U.S. government circles preoccupations similar to British ideas were nonexistent. On the contrary, the principle of a seemingly unlimited presence of its troops in Europe was never accepted by the American government as a whole nor by Congress and the American public. However, in the absence of powerful financial counterarguments, such as balance-of-payments problems, the political arguments for an undiminished commitment to the defense of Europe carried the day in discussions within the government. This changed only in 1959 and 1960, when the American dollar came under pressure just as the English pound had.