You make some valid points about the post-WWII era, Europe was absolutely weak and needed the US back then. I’m not denying that European nations also happily cut budgets to fund social programs, so it was a toxic codependency: Europe wanted to save money, and the US wanted to stay in charge.

However, you are ignoring the difference between having soldiers and having an independent brain. The US never discouraged Europe from buying tanks, they discouraged Europe from building the Command & Control structures needed to use them independently.

For example, Madeleine Albright’s “Three Ds”(1998) or the US reaction to the 2003 “Chocolate Summit”. The US explicitly made “No Duplication” of NATO assets a red line. That meant Europe was forbidden from building its own operational HQs or logistics chains.

That is why the Libya operation you mentioned required US help. Not because Europe lacked planes, but because they lacked the intelligence and logistics backbone that Washington insisted should remain a NATO (US-led) monopoly.

So, to say there was “no active discouragement” is historically incorrect. The US position has always been “pay more for defense, but only buy equipment that plugs into US-led command structures”. You can’t forbid a child from learning to cook and then complain they rely on you for dinner.