FLASH
Shkruar nga Max Hastings
Through a letter, the leader of the Polish anti-communist movement Lech Walesa gives Donald Trump some advice on how the 21st-century United States should behave with age-old allies and adversaries, such as Putin's Russia...
Whatever happens to Ukraine and Gaza, to the markets, to Canada and to NATO, the decline in global trust in the Trump-led US is irreversible.
In 1969, Richard Nixon failed to scare the North Vietnamese enough to force them into a quick peace by spreading his “madman theory” – the thesis that he was capable of anything if they didn’t give him what he wanted – and that was because they didn’t believe he was mad.
Today, America's supposed allies are unsure whether the American president is truly mentally unstable. But on the other hand, they are absolutely convinced that his word cannot be trusted for more than a day; that his course of action is irrational, and that he and his associates, JDVance and Elon Musk, abhor truth and any etiquette of diplomacy, courtesy, and politeness.
Trump was recently sent a letter from an almost forgotten giant: Lech Walesa, one of the most famous and courageous leaders of the resistance against Soviet oppressors in 1970s Eastern Europe, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of Poland.
He expresses in the letter his indignation at the US's behavior towards Ukraine: "We find it deeply insulting that you expect Ukraine to show respect and gratitude for the assistance provided by the United States in its fight against Russia. We do not understand how the leader of a country that symbolizes the free world cannot see that Ukraine's war is the war of all of us in the West."
Walesa further emphasizes that the treatment meted out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office “reminded us of interrogations by secret police bodies and debates in communist courts.” “Prosecutors and judges, acting on behalf of the powerful communist political police, told us that they had all the power, and we had nothing,” Walesa emphasizes.
According to him, the history of the 20th century has shown that whenever the US has sought to distance itself from democratic values and its European allies, this approach has ultimately turned into a threat to itself. Walesa was a major contributor to the collapse of the Soviet empire.
For the sake of freedom, he endured persecution, show trials, and prison sentences. Those of us who remember his movement see his letter to Trump as a futile gesture. He is the symbol of a moral leader. Yet his words received scant coverage in the American media.
And I doubt whether President Trump has been shown his letter. Morality is absent from the vocabulary of the Trumpian World. No democracy has maintained such high standards throughout history. As a reporter, I have witnessed some of the less than admirable actions of the US in Indochina and elsewhere.
But for all our national sins, as a historian I tend to think that we are all a little guilty. At the time, few of us ever doubted that in the great field of human problems, Americans were the good guys. As Lech Walesa said, the US was “the country that symbolized the free world.”
Meanwhile, the Russians were the bad guys. Today, they have returned to that role. With the invasion of Ukraine, the bombing of its cities and the killing of tens of thousands of civilians; the murder of Vladimir Putin's critics, especially journalists, and above all that of Alexei Navalny, the extremely courageous opposition leader, in a Siberian prison; the satanic alliances with Assad's Syria, Iran and North Korea.
Putin's nuclear threats to the West have confirmed Russia's transition from a post-Cold War neutral state to a new stronghold of evil. We now face an America that is almost untrustworthy, whose leader, to borrow a term from the Star Wars saga, seems to be embracing the Dark Side.
Trump has resumed - for now, anyway - the flow of military and intelligence aid to Ukraine, which he cut off immediately after his public debate with Zelensky. He threatened Russia with serious consequences if it does not agree to a ceasefire.
But no one forgets his numerous insults to Zelenskiy and his warm words for Putin. The American president repeatedly declares that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was justified; that Russia’s victory is inevitable; and Zelensky must bow down not only to him but also to Putin, because Russia holds “all the cards.” So why is it surprising that Europe is traumatized? With its behavior toward Ukraine, Gaza, Canada, and Europe, the US has abandoned the moral high ground that even at the height of foreign criticism of its past behavior toward, for example, Cuba and Vietnam — few reasonable Westerners doubted it maintained.
In Europe, there are conflicting views on how the war in Ukraine will end. But almost no one on this side of the Atlantic doubts Putin's Russia's status as the vanguard of an alliance of predatory countries.
Any hint of a helpful stance from Moscow will cause the White House to turn against Kiev again, to appease the Russians. No European leader dares to say publicly what everyone thinks privately, with the possible exception of Hungary’s autocrat, Viktor Orban: that the United States has fallen into the hands of a leader with whom it is impossible to talk rationally, and who threatens to precipitate geostrategic catastrophe not only in Ukraine but also by strengthening Israel’s far right, the Atlantic alliance, and entering into conflict with neighboring Canada.
And to achieve this, he seems willing to destroy the world economy. Almost all of us are dismayed by Trump's behavior, yet we are at a loss as to how to respond. Republicans in Congress, and in much of the US, continue to blindly accept his misbehavior in office.
I have yet to read a reaction from any Democrat who speaks of what is needed for a virtuous America. That is, a return to the pursuit of justice, freedom, and ethics, a rejection of the manipulation of regulations and the law, and the corruption with which Trump seems eager to enrich himself and his friends, at home and abroad.
Of course, there are still many good Americans, and I read their depressing messages every day. But those of us who do not hold public office should not hesitate to say that the United States, which we have long respected and honored, now seems ready to join forces with terrible people, rejecting law, order, and stability, both at home and abroad.
Trump and his people in the White House will soon discover that while the US remains the richest nation on earth, it no longer has the power to impose its will, least of all through distractions, insults and harassment. It can precipitate chaos, and in fact has done so.
But it cannot make the waves of the sea or the sun bend as President Trump demands. Those who cling to the moral compass — the kind of people for whom Walesa remains a hero — reject this perversion of America, which we hope to one day respect again. / Pamphlet from “Bloomberg”
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