Appease Russia in the name of “Peace”

It appears that President Trump’s peace talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin may take place without the full participation of Ukraine.

If so, there is a possibility of a sellout similar to what took place in 1938, when Great Britain and France approved of Adolf Hitler’s demand that the large German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia be annexed by Nazi Germany. The Czech government was not present at negotiations.

Upon his return to Britain, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proclaimed that he had secured “peace in our time.” Winston Churchill, then a member of the House of Commons, harshly condemned this agreement as appeasement, as have historians since then.

In March 1939, Hitler seized all of Czechoslovakia. It was then that Chamberlain recognized the unlimited imperial greed of the German tyrant. What followed was the British and French guarantee of Poland’s security. In September 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany, and World War II began.

In 2014, Putin occupied Crimea and backed separatists in the eastern provinces of Ukraine, areas in which Russian speakers make up a large proportion of the population. After the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he annexed these provinces.

The U.S. government stance has been highly ambiguous. The current secretary of Defense has declared that those parts of Ukraine annexed by Russia would probably not be returned to Ukraine.

At the peace talks, will the U.S. appease Russia in the name of “peace”?

Thomas P. Bernstein, Irvine, California

The writer is a professor emeritus of political science at Columbia University. This was posted in the Los Angeles Times on February 19, 2025.