Originally Posted by
t43562
I think what's being suggested is that Europe was the de facto battle ground between Russia and the US. i.e. that the US was going to defend itself in Europe. I don't mean that was an evil strategy or anything but that it is of course better to do your fighting as far away from home as possible. The Russians obviously responded to this by building a huge force. The US could have chosen not to spend all that money and risk having Russian effort concentrated on other things.
This still doesn't explain why Europe underfunded it defenses. Europe took the peace dividend concept a little too far.