President Trump’s shameful performance at the Feb. 28 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his lack of support for Ukraine in the Russia-Ukraine conflict remind me of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s performance at the Munich Agreement in 1938, at which Chamberlain and representatives from France and Italy agreed on Adolf Hitler’s terms to allow Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in exchange for assurances from Hitler that his forces would not invade neighboring countries.

Chamberlain characterized the agreement with Hitler as a success and, upon returning to the U.K., made the now famous statement “Peace for our times”; in 1939 Germany invaded Poland, World War II was on, tens of thousands of citizens were killed and European cities were in flames. Upon reflection, most historians rank Chamberlain’s performance at Munich as a monumental appeasement failure that made war more likely.

Wayne Baughman

Salem

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