Protecting Germany's sovereignty also protected America's interests. They were aligned.
Germany (like France could and did) could have expelled the US military any time they wanted to.
No, not legally. (And also not in reality)
1955 were the treaties, conventions, protocols and schedules of the Bonn-Paris Conventions, the Pariser Verträge in German. The treaty terminating the occupation of (West) Germany was the revised “Convention on Relations between the Three Powers and the Federal Republic of Germany”, in German often short „Deutschlandvertrag“. The three powers in article 2 of that convention explicitly reserved the rights for Berlin and Germany as a whole and relevant for this the right to station armed forces in Germany (article 2, articles 4 and 5).
https://www.bgbl.de/xaver/bgbl/start.xav#__bgbl__%2F%2F*%5B%... (PDF)
The 1955 conventions were a package deal. Part of it was the “Convention on the Presence of Foreign Forces in the Federal Republic of Germany”, which further assured the Three Allied Powers right to station forces in Germany, although limited to what was already there.
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/resource/blob/248488/1f12562...
Both conventions were only to be terminated by all signatory states or by a future German reunification agreement and peace treaty. That was in effect the “Treaty on the Final Settlement with respect to Germany“ of 1990, the 2+4-treaty, in which the allied powers, including the Soviet Union, terminated their rights. Hence final settlement.
But that in the end has nothing to do with my original response, which was "the US sets up its bases out of its own self interest". Even if those interests align, it doesn't mean it's there to honor German wishes. If those interests had not aligned, the US would've still stayed there, this is as clear as the header of this page being orange.
Recall I've lived through that, and my father was pretty involved in it in the military bases there. I've had German friends, and been in their homes, and interacted with them.
They were not "occupied" against their will.
You haven't presented any evidence whatsoever for your conclusion. I've presented first hand, second hand, and documentary evidence for my case.
P.S. My dad also spent time stationed in France. He said the French made it very clear they wanted the USAF out. He said it was quite a contrast with Germany.
I can only repeat, I wrote "The US places its military worldwide out of its own interest, not to protect anyone". Whatever Germany wanted there does not make any difference.
Also again, the best I can do is respectfully disagree about the idea Germany asking the US to leave, and the US respecting its sovereignty. That West Germany was sovereign since 1955 is only part of the story, East Germany became sovereign in 1954, but it would be difficult to argue it meant anything of value (because it didn't).
France made sure to avoid an US occupation government and rebuilt its own independent military. It could make a choice.
"Sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany was granted on May 5, 1955, by the formal end of the military occupation of its territory"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_Germany
When I lived near Luke AFB in the early 70's, Luke was training Luftwaffe pilots to fly F-104 Starfighters. I used to ride my bike onto the base and go to the flight line, and watch those lawn darts take off. They'd get halfway down the runway and light the afterburners! Freakin' awesome. Oh I wanted to be a pilot soo bad.
An F-104 was little more than a pilot strapped to a monster of a jet engine.
Edit: Public opinion can also be shaped, not least after the trauma of the Nazi period and in the midst of the Cold War. Actual influence behind the scene is usually not made known to public, and the influence of the US over Germany has been overwhelming.
Not once living there did I ever get the impression that the Germans felt the US presence was forced on them. They appreciated that the US was there to keep the Red Army at bay.
Of course, sometimes they'd complain about the Americans having bad manners, usually justifiably, and sometimes they'd envy the wealth of the Americans. I even attended a German elementary school for a while, and nobody bullied me because I was an American. I was even invited by other students to their homes to play.
The US bases were of mutual benefit to the Germans and the Americans.
P.S. my father went from:
1. bombing Germany in WW2
2. being part of the military occupation in the early 1950s.
3. being part of NATO planning headquarters in Wiesbaden in 68-71. This was not an occupying force