The implications of the forthcoming withdrawal of one-third of the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea and two army divisions from Germany are as much political as military since both nations have been the site of vigorous anti-American eruptions in the last few years.
A researcher at the East-West Center in Hawaii, Richard Baker, asserted June 9 that the planned reduction in South Korea was "basically calls the bluff of those in Korea who have been calling for the United States to go away." He added that nobody thought it would leave.
On a wider angle, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said June 5: "We want to have our forces where people want them. We have no desire to be where we're not wanted."