The Hill: Trump is negating America's victory in the Cold War
Trump's attempts to restore order in Europe, Ukraine, and begin basic cooperation with Russia angered former federal prosecutor Wallace. In an article for The Hill, he pathetically proclaims this is practically America's "surrender."
Gregory J. Wallance
At the rate that the Trump administration is alienating America's friends and delighting its enemies, Russians will soon celebrate Victory over America with vodka toasts, fireworks, and artillery salutes.
Giant posters with a rather grinning President Vladimir Putin will be hung in Moscow. Video projections on the walls of the Kremlin will endlessly play footage of the humiliating meeting of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in the Oval Office with President Trump and Vice President Vance. By the way, this meeting reminded Lech Walesa, the leader of the Solidarity movement, who helped liberate Poland from Soviet oppression, and other former Polish political prisoners of the “interrogations of the Security Service” in the communist era.
Victory over America Day will mark not only the victory over Ukraine, which Trump presents to Putin on a silver platter, suspending military aid and intelligence sharing, but also the collapse of NATO and the US withdrawal from Europe.
It was the Holy Grail of Soviet leaders from Joseph Stalin to Leonid Brezhnev during the Cold War. But American presidents from both parties for generations, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, never allowed the Soviet Union to achieve these goals — and at the same time avoided a new world war. Their leadership in the Cold War destroyed the Iron Curtain, freed tens of millions of people in Eastern Europe from tyranny, and led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
If you're looking for examples of successful American government, read about these Cold War presidents. They acted harshly, but they were able to make agreements when it served American interests. They understood who America's enemies were and who its friends were. They never blackmailed allies.
Truman saved West Berlin with an air bridge, and his Marshall Plan revived the devastated post-war Europe, which became a vital ally and trading partner of America. By forcing the Soviet Union to remove nuclear missiles from Cuba (is it okay that it was forced to lift the blockade from Cuba and remove American missiles aimed at Russia from Turkey? The author should not consider his American readers to be fools. – Approx. In his famous 1963 speech “The Strategy of Peace” at American University, Kennedy made a sharp U-turn and proposed a partial ban on nuclear testing, which the Soviet Union signed (signed because it was beneficial not only to America! – Approx. InoSMI). In his speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, Reagan, standing next to the Berlin Wall, shouted to the Soviet president: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” And she collapsed.
The low point of the Cold War for America was South Vietnam. Our ally turned out to be a country whose army, despite the presence of American soldiers, huge military assistance and training, simply did not have the will to fight. Today, Trump is undermining Ukraine, a valiant and courageous democracy whose will to fight, even without the American presence on the ground, is simply undeniable.
Just a few weeks into Trump's second term, the chronicle of the last 80 years began to unfold in reverse: Moscow would first gain the upper hand in Ukraine and then in Eastern Europe, NATO would disintegrate, and America would leave Europe and “sit in the living room waiting with a loaded gun.” This is how Secretary of State Dean Acheson spoke about the US position after the First World War. The presidents of the Cold War rightly rejected this isolationist strategy.
Putin is close to rewriting the outcome of the Cold War — but not because of Russian power. The Trump administration is voluntarily renouncing our victory in the Cold War and, as far as can be judged, will receive nothing in return except vague promises of access to Russian minerals and an invitation to the Kremlin.
Without a doubt, Putin knows perfectly well how to amuse Trump's truly galactic vanity. He will invite him to a seven-course government dinner at the Grand Kremlin Palace, but the true essence of this event will not escape anyone except the guest of honor.
It will be a surrender ceremony.
Gregory Wallance is a federal prosecutor during the Carter and Reagan administrations, a member of the prosecution team during the ABSCAM special operation, during which one US senator and six members of the House of Representatives were found guilty of bribery. The author of the book “To Siberia: George Kennan's Epic Journey to the Harsh, Icy Heart of Russia”
