It’s hard not to see parallels between Donald Trump’s deals with Vladimir Putin and the appeasement of Adolf Hitler by Britain and France in the 1930s. However, Trump is performing even more like the USSR and Italy, who went beyond acceptance and emboldenment of Nazi aggression to ally with Hitler and opportunistically mimic him. Like Stalin and Mussolini, Trump treats a disordered world as an exciting opening, and has talked of claiming Panama, Greenland, Canada, and Gaza as U.S. territory.
His unprecedented reworking of government shows that he does sometimes follow through on his words. Anyone who can accept the impact of his promises on the millions living in his potential conquests should at least consider the ramifications — for Americans and others — of the world disorder he’s promoting.
World War II claimed up to 85 million lives before Hitler’s reign of atrocity ended, ironically with major input from the Soviet Union and the U.S., who back then fought to restore order. The international norms that followed were imperfect, toothless, and frequently manipulated, but they created immense positive outcomes. Colonialism and legal racism were curtailed. Scores of countries adopted self-rule and participatory government, and collaborated to eradicate disease, spread life-improving technology, build economies, shine light on rights abuses, and solve conflicts through peaceful diplomacy.
It’s impossible to know where Putin and Trump’s disorder will lead, but that’s exactly the point. It has certainly begun to dismantle some postwar progress. It’s time for the U.S. to get back on the right side of history.
Michael Bukowick
Northfield