For months, Donald Trump has promised he alone can end the war in Ukraine. On March 25, the White House announced initial areas of agreement after brokering talks between Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia. The White House statement says Ukraine and Russia will agree to “ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force” in the Black Sea. Other news reports note the U.S. has agreed to help Russia sell grain and fertilizer.
This isn’t a parallel to the Munich Agreement.
The appropriate and correct historical parallel is the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact.
The thrust of the article is good. However the Chamberlain/Munich “appeasement” is a bad reading of history.
First, Chamberlain had a mandate to prevent another war. 1914-18 was fresh in his constituent’s minds. Second, he had fresh intel that if a Czechoslovakian resistance existed, Britain was not in touch with it. Thirdly, Chamberlain had zero leverage because Britain was powerless to prevent German tanks from rolling East. The idea that Chamberlain didn’t do enough implies there was something else he could have done. Something Churchill would have done! But what was it that they could do?
Czechoslovakia was not “given away” by Chamberlain any more than Poland was “given away” by Churchill. What Chamberlain achieved was to make Britain 5 years behind when war broke out instead of 10 years behind.
