Lessons unlearnt
History shows that Donald Trump is making a serious error in appeasing Vladimir Putin
The policy of appeasement — strategic concessions to an aggressor that are designed to avoid war — is generally most closely associated in the UK with the Conservative leader Neville Chamberlain, prime minister between May 1937 and May 1940. When Chamberlain moved into 10 Downing Street, Adolf Hitler’s willingness to ignore international agreements was already apparent, having broken the Versailles treaty with a massive expansion of Germany’s armed forces, the occupation of the Rhineland.
Like Chamberlain at Munich, Trump has suggested offering the sovereign territory of an independent nation to appease a bully.
Trump’s response, shortly after taking office, was to bully Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and negotiate directly with Russia.
Between 1935 and 1937, Roosevelt made speeches condemning autocracy — but his actions did not match his words. In 1938, he appointed the appeaser Joseph Kennedy as US ambassador to the UK. Kennedy assured the German ambassador in London that he “sympathised not only with Germany’s racial policy but also with her economic goals”.
In Berlin, the US ambassador, Hugh Wilson, insisted that defence of Czechoslovakia’s borders would be unrealistic. The Czechs should surrender the Sudetenland to Germany. Roosevelt continued his efforts to arrange a compromise peace when German forces seized Poland in September 1939.
The parallels continue. Confronted by Russia’s invasion of its democratic neighbour and relentless attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities, Trump’s response, shortly after taking office, was to bully Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and negotiate directly with Russia. This approach signally failed and the killing continued and even intensified.
Now, following his two-hour conversation with Putin, Trump has abandoned his insistence on an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. He now insists that the war is not his to fix. The US will step back. It is another hard blow to Ukrainian hopes for negotiation and compromise.
There is scant evidence that Trump pays attention to history.
Chamberlain’s version of appeasement failed to prevent Adolf Hitler’s aggression in the 20th century.
Trump’s newly appointed defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, suggested at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels in February that the US would reorientate its security policy away from Europe, saying Europe must “take ownership of conventional security on the continent”.
This is essential, Hegseth said, because China is the real threat, and the US lacks the military resources to face in two directions simultaneously. It was a confession of weakness that places both America and Europe at increased risk.
The philosopher George Santayana is credited with the warning: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Chamberlain’s version of appeasement failed to prevent Adolf Hitler’s aggression in the 20th century. Trump’s version appears equally incapable of deterring Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions in the 21st.
