For Norwegians, the sight of dozens of American Marines traipsing through the snow in military fatigues – the first time foreign forces have been posted to their country’s territory since World War II – may have brought a welcomed sense of security, but it also harked back to a dark era of the Cold War that many had hoped to forget.
A United States military plane on Jan. 16 delivered most of the 330 Marines to a garrison in Vaernes, in central Norway, a deployment that Norwegian officials said had been carried out by the United States as part of a bilateral agreement. It was the latest effort by the United States and its European allies to buttress their defenses against a resurgent Russia, which condemned the move.
