In 1938 Chamberlain signed a peace agreement with Germany—Britain’s enemy.
In 2025 President Trump wants to make a $500 billion investment in the Ukraine, an ally.
In 1938 Chamberlain agreed not to fight Germany.
In 2025 President Trump noted that if Americans and others invest $500 billion in the Ukraine, the U.S. and the investors would have a reason to make sure the investment is secure.
These are among the differences of the two eras.
The biggest difference is that the Democrats, which opposed the Viet Nam, and all other wars (except the Civil War which they started) is now the Party of War.
The Republican Party using finances as the tool of Peace, is the Party opposed to wars.
Just as the Democrats became the Party of the rich, and lost the 2024 election, the GOP has changed. It is now the populist Party, the party of the People. As Bob Dylan would say, “The times they are achanging”.
1938
By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 3/7/25 www.capoliticalnewsandviews.com
The year 1938 can be remembered for one major event: The Munich Agreement.
Something similar is happening currently. Timidity and weakness on the part of the American President Donald Trump is allowing a dictator, Vladimir Putin of Russia, to obliterate democracy in Ukraine, a nation bordering on Russia.
The 1938 Munich Agreement was endorsed by Adolf Hitler, the chancellor of Germany, Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, and other European leaders.
According to an internet website, “The agreement allowed Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland, a German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia.”
Prime Minister Chamberlain, upon returning to London, announced that the Munich Agreement brought, “Peace for our time.” Chamberlain’s agreement to give Hitler the Sudetenland became known as appeasement.
Shortly after the Munich Agreement, another British leader, Winston Churchill, told the British Parliament that Chamberlain thinks that he (Chamberlain) obtained peace in Munich. Churchill argued that Britain, instead, will get war. Churchill’s speech was titled “A Total and Unmitigated Defeat.”
Hitler promised the after taking control of the Sudetenland, Nazi Germany has no more territorial ambitions.
In 1936, Hitler seized the Rhineland, a demilitarized region that bordered on France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Seizing the Rhineland violated the treaty ending World War I.
In March 1938, Hitler annexed Austria, an independent German-speaking nation.
Perhaps emboldened by the Munich Agreement, the German Nazi regime, on the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938, killed Jews in Germany and Austria. Jewish shops and synagogues were destroyed. The desecration of Nov. 9-10, became known as Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass).
On Sept. 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, showing that Germany had plans for conquest of non-German-speaking lands.
Under Trump, the United States is appeasing Russia in Russia’s attempt to seize Ukraine. In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Now, three years later, Russia has not conquered Ukraine.
Recently, in the Middle East, Russian and American diplomats held discussions on Ukraine. At the discussions, there was no Ukrainian representative.
The American Congress has been strangely silent on the Ukrainian situation. Members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives have said virtually nothing. Both houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans. On the matter of Ukraine, America does not need a supine Congress.
Trump is apparently willing to abandon Ukraine much as Chamberlain abandoned the Sudetenland.
If Russia takes control of Ukraine, what will happened next? Will Russia try to conquer other nations such as Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania? Is Russia, a nation with nuclear weapons, about to start World War III?
The Trump administration is abandoning a democratic ally, Ukraine.
In 2004, the Orange Revolution took place in Ukraine. The revolution was designed to overthrow a tyrannical dictatorship that was running Ukraine. Had such conservative leaders as President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a member of Britain’s Conservative Party, been in power during the Orange Revolution, there is little doubt that they would have supported the revolution.
In 2019, Ukraine, in a display of democracy, overwhelmingly elected a democratic leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Disrupting relations with allies has been a characteristic of Trump. After his second inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, Trump called for the United States to take control of Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. In the case of Canada, Trump has called for making America’s northern neighbor a state of the United States.
Trump’s imperialistic actions toward American allies could mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The NATO alliance was created in 1949 to protect European nations and the United States from aggression. An attack on one NATO nation, according to the 1949 treaty, is considered an attack on all NATO nations. The treaty establishing NATO has been ratified by the U.S. Senate.
Trump has to be held accountable for his disruptions of agreements with America’s allies.
If Trump does not support Ukraine, a signal will be sent to nations hostile to the United States. These hostile nations might easily undertake aggression. For example, if China determines that the U.S. is weak, China might seize Taiwan and the South China Sea, an area important for world-wide commerce.
