Appeasement: No, Non, Nein, Nyet!

Eighty years after the end of World War II, Europe, and America, face a dilemma. No one believed that any war would ever occur on the European continent after the destruction wrought during the twentieth century. Two world wars were enough! The Helsinki Final Act of 1975 seemed to seal peace in Europe and the collapse of Soviet social imperialism made it certain. Eastern Europe was freed from the embrace of the Russian bear. New countries were created from the devolution of the Soviet state and the warm sun shined on Europe. But it was not to be.

Many believed that the cold war competition was between democracy and totaltaranism or Communism and capitalism. It wasn't. It was between the West and Russian imperialism. Soviet Communist internationalism and its multi- ethnic state was a fraud and a cover for Russian imperlalism as the Russian dominated Politburo reigned supreme over many subordinate nationalities. With the downfall of the Soviet Communist dictatorship, many thought that history had ended and democracy was the new norm for the world. However, the old Communist nomenklatura didn't get the message as former Communist apparatchiks changed their clothing but not their goals. Former dedicated Communists found that they could hold onto power and become rich at the same time. They did; and the goals of the Communist international movement, unchanged, morphed into blatant Russian imperialism. Restoration of the borders of Czarist Russia was their initial aim.

After the downfall of the Communist dictatorship in 1991, the newly transformed Russian Federation pretended to be a democracy while all of the world lionized its new leader, President

Boris Yeltsin. Lest we be fooled by Yeltsin, it is important to rememer that he was a life long member and official of the CPSU, achieving the rank of Secretary of the Moscow Party Committee and candidate (non-voting) member of the Politburo. Yeltsin, a chronic alcoholic, endeared himself to the west by his amusing antics and obtained significant assistance for his bankrupt and decrepit nation. Simultaneously, he helped loot what remained of the Russian economy, enriching a new class of "businessmen" called oligarchs and his family. Fearing prosecution of his family when he left office, he arranged to be succeeded by a young Communist apparatchik and KGB veteran, Vladimir Putin, who has been the new Czar since 1998, as the Russian people re-elect him periodically in so called elections.

Putin and his colleagues seem to be following the playbook of Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich. From the "seizure of power" in 1933 until the start of World War II in 1939, the Nazis practiced an aggressive foreign policy while professing their love for peace and cooperation. The British felt particular guilt over the German burden of reparation payments due to the war guilt clause (article 231 of the Versailles Treaty). Students at the Oxford Union took the infamous Oxford Oath pledging to not fight for King and Country. A large portion of the French poltical class were openly sympathetic to the Nazi regime. Understanding whom they were dealing with, the Nazis played their diplomatic hand skillfuly. They withdrew from the League of Nations and the Geneva disarmament talks yet seduced the British with the Anglo German Naval Accord and the rest of the world with a Concordat signed by the Vatican Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII. How reasonable the Nazis seemed. While professing peace, conscription was instituted in violation of the Versailles Treaty, the demilitarized Rhineland was reoccupied militarily and Austria was subverted and occupied in the spring of 1938. Hitler then made his "last territorial demand" in Europe, namely the "return" of the German speaking part of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, to Germany. The Sudetenland was never part of Germany, but the British and French were determined to have peace at any price . Neville Chamberlain and Eduard Daladier yielded to Hitler. They were not going to fight for a far away country and people of whom they knew little and so "peace in our time'" was established. Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden warned that appeasement would not work and that war was coming. It came less than a year later as Germany invaded Poland on Sep 1, 1939 . The nightmare of World War II had begun

The USSR benefitted from the Nazi invasion of Poland. The secret clauses of the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact secured Russian cooperantion on the Eastern Front. In return, Germany awarded the independent Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and a major portion of Poland to the Soviet Union. It is these borders that Putin seeks to restore to the "Russian Empire".

Fully understanding Europe's desire for peace, Putin has played the same game the Nazis did. He has gone after Georgian territory, seized the Crimea, dominates Belarus and has made threatening gestures to Moldova while brutally invading Ukraine. He has ably played the United States, meeting in Alaska with President Trump and falsely stating that he would meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky in Moscow, while increasing his attacks on civilian targets in that destroyed country. Most recently, in an attemp to thwart furhter sanctions, he has threatend action against any country that would block Russian assets. Whether this threat is just a threat or a prelude to further war in Europe is a question many Europeans don't want to ask nor do they want an answer. Already Russian drones have flown over Poland and Romania. Putin's goals of moving Russian borders westward and breaking up NATO are well established. What is equally clear is that the European Union must respond to a European problem. War, however unthinkable may require EU and NATO action. This blog has called for establishment of a European Defense Community. Europe cannot afford appeasement and as they share the continent, the common European home, their firm response is required.

Putin has secured support from a rogue's gallery of nations, China, North Korea and Iran.

With support from nations as those, it becomes clearer that history did not end. What kind of world emerges from the current Russian playbook will affect the whole world for many years to come. To Europeans and indeed to all people of good will, the answer is clear. There can be no appeasement.

Garry S. Sklar

Las Vegas, NV

Sep. 16, 2025