I would say that background wise something had to happen in the late 60 early 70's that made the dutch government decide they wanted there navy (as well as the rest of their forces more likly) to join more closely with the USN.
indeed. I was come to this conclusion myself too.... but couldn't find an reason why.
as I said in the first post:
the story is, that for one or another reason, the dutch chose all USN ships to replace their cruisers, the van speijks and the DD's with.
there are not that many reasons that would fit there