Money and Security

This study links two fundamental political structures of the Cold War era, the transatlantic security system and the international monetary system. Central to this issue is a problem that soured relations among the Federal Republic and its major allies from the 1950s to the 1970s: Who was to bear the enormous cost of British and American troops in Germany? Both Washington and London identified this cost as a major reason for the decline of the pound and the dollar, whereas Germany reluctantly paid and traded "Money for Security", a fundamental pattern of its postwar foreign policy.