ABSTRACT
The Kennedy visit marked the apogee of German popular response to the presence of Americans in Germany and to the alliance between the two countries. Americans also appreciated what they saw as the triumph of their own values. They saw West Germany grow strong because it had become a democracy, and it had learned democracy from America. The Germans had adopted the American system and had proven not only themselves but the system. Out of the experience of the postwar years grew an emotional as well as a political bond between Germans and Americans. Surveys have also consistently shown that well over three quarters of West Germany's population wish to keep American troops "to improve the protection of freedom." Like most Germans, most Americans have remained remarkably constant in their attitudes on the fundamentals of international affairs. American public attitudes toward West Germany, therefore, in some ways resemble West German attitudes toward the United States.
