Then he shifted terrain and spoke for 20 minutes on the growing problem of America’s unfavorable balance of payments, an issue close to his heart. The United States was spending too many dollars overseas, partly the result of a large U.S. troop presence in Europe. Since the dollar was still pegged to a fixed exchange rate for gold, these dollars could be cashed in for U.S. gold by European banks, so the United States was facing a drain on its gold reserves. Eisenhower suggested that the balance of payments problem had to be addressed by asking the NATO allies to pay a greater share of their
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