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White House Letter: In row over Yalta, Bush pokes at Baltic politics. WASHINGTON When President George W. Bush declared on May 7 in Latvia that the 1945 Yalta agreement had led to "one of the greatest wrongs of history," he reignited an ideological debate from the era of Joseph McCarthy. For more than a week now, the left and the right have been arguing over the president's words and re-arguing the deal made by Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill in an old czarist resort near the Crimean city of Yalta in the closing days of World War II. Bush has criticized...

Yalta Condemned Millions to Tyranny FDR’s Failure Not Forgotten by Arnold Beichman Posted May 13, 2005 Earlier this week Vladimir Putin celebrated in Moscow the end of World War II and glorified—yes, glorified—the memory of Josef Stalin, one of the great mass murderers of all time. So much for Putin and what he calls his “managed democracy.” President Bush, on the other hand, celebrated the historic date differently. He had the courage to speak truth to power in a once-captive nation, Latvia, which along with Estonia and Lithuania, had suffered for half a century under a Soviet dictatorship. Bush told...

Saying sorry By Anne Applebaum "It just offends me that the president of the United States is, directly or indirectly, attacking his own country in a foreign land." That was 1998. The speaker, Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), was then House majority whip. The president was Bill Clinton, who had "attacked his own country" while in Uganda. "Going back to the time before we were even a nation," Clinton had told an African audience, "European Americans received the fruits of the slave trade. And we were wrong in that." Fast-forward seven years; the president is now George W. Bush. Last weekend he...

Bush's Diplomatic MasterstrokeApplause Lines by Jacob T. Levy Only at TNR Online Post date: 05.13.05 President Bush's first term was not marked by an overeagerness to confront Russia, either on its failings at home or on its foreign policy. Especially after September 11, Bush turned a blind eye to Chechnya, Russian meddling (including armed meddling) in other former Soviet republics, corruption, violations of the rule of law, and the slow-motion destruction of the (partial) independence of Russia's press, courts, parliament, and provinces. Bush curried favor with Vladimir Putin--just as Bill Clinton had curried favor with Boris Yeltsin and Bush's...

Thank you, President Bush, for correcting history and making a long overdue apology for one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s tragic mistakes. Speaking in Latvia on May 7, Bush repudiated “the agreement at Yalta” by which powerful governments negotiated away the freedom of small nations. Bush accurately blamed Yalta for “the captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe” and said it “will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history.” This admission has been 50 years coming, and Bush’s words assure that “the legacy of Yalta was finally buried, once and for all.” It was at Yalta,...

President Bush struck a nerve during his recent trip to Europe when he acknowledged America's role in the communist enslavement of Eastern Europe after World War II. In a speech in Latvia, he said the United States and Britain share the blame for the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states through the 1945 Yalta Conference treaty -- the crown jewel of liberal diplomacy -- and urged Russian Premier Vladimir Putin to own up to the Soviet Union's dark past. Weary of war, worried about their popularity at home and wanting Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's aid in defeating Japan after Germany's...

The Yalta Conference was a betrayal of Eastern Europe and American ideals. Leave it to the Left to claim otherwise. “Outrage” … “cause for shame”[1] … “incendiary.”[2] This was the mainstream media’s reaction to President Bush’s speech this week in Riga, Latvia, wherein he strongly denounced the injustice perpetrated on half of Europe 60 years ago at the Yalta Conference. It was a Yalta that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to the Soviet takeover of half of Europe. What followed was nearly 50 years of repression, killing, and, of course, the Cold War. This...

...Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Mr. Bush's comments is that they constitute an apology for a historical disaster most Americans don't remember. I certainly knew nothing of the bitterness that many East Europeans felt toward the United States and Britain until I was personally accused of "selling out" Poland at Yalta -- a deal done 20 years before I was born -- during my first trip to Warsaw in the 1980s. Now is a good time to stand back and think hard about how important it is for American diplomacy and historical understanding when U.S. presidents admit that not...

Continuous news, views, and abuse by the Reason staff « New at Reason | Main Reason magazine HomeAboutSubscribe Reason Online headlines Trans-Human Expressway: Why libertarians will win the future (May 11) The Other Insurrections: People power south of the border (May 11) A Fistful of Lard: The "fatophobia" backlash (May 10) Hit & Run Archives May 08, 2005 - May 14, 2005 May 01, 2005 - May 07, 2005 April 24, 2005 - April 30, 2005 Complete Archives Hit & Run suggestions? Search Hit & Run: Syndicate: xml or rdf May 11, 2005 Yalta Once More, With Feeling At...

If the objective of the West was the destruction of Nazi Germany, it was a "smashing" success. But why destroy Hitler? If to liberate Germans, it was not worth it. After all, the Germans voted Hitler in. If it was to keep Hitler out of Western Europe, why declare war on him and draw him into Western Europe? If it was to keep Hitler out of Central and Eastern Europe, then, inevitably, Stalin would inherit Central and Eastern Europe. Was that worth fighting a world war – with 50 million dead?

This week, while touring the remnants of the former Soviet Union on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, President Bush gave perhaps the greatest diplomatic performance of his career, balancing a host of moral and strategic interests simultaneously. In the Baltic republics, he recognized that the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe was "one of the greatest wrongs in history." In Russia he carefully avoided alienating the Russians too much. In Georgia he literally danced a jig and championed liberty for the entire world. But the most exciting part of the president's trip, for...

In the catalogue of 20th-century misery, Eastern Europe’s place is lamentably prominent. Ravaged by Nazi brutality in World War II, it fell to Soviet domination after the war. Speaking over the weekend in Latvia, President Bush said that the Yalta agreement codifying that domination “followed in the unjust tradition of Münich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable.” Yalta’s outraged defenders are now out in force. Jacob Heilbrunn, writing in the Los Angeles Times, made two typical criticisms of Bush’s history: first, that Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe...

Here's the link to an inevitable, IMO, attack on President Bush's Yalta comments from an insignificant wannabe "journalist" seeking some modicum of relevance in a world that has left him behind: http://www.lmtribune.com/05102005/opinions/254342.php

Presidents aren't expected to know much history, but their speechwriters are. President Bush's speech in Riga on Saturday did not measure up. It wasn't Bush who started the quarrel about whether the Soviet Union "liberated" or "occupied" Eastern Europe after 1945. It was the presidents of Lithuania and Estonia, who refused to go to Moscow for the ceremonies commemorating the Soviet defeat of Germany 60 years ago, and the presidents of Latvia and Poland, who only agreed to go with great reluctance. But Bush jumped into the argument with considerable ignorance. What he did was to condemn the Yalta agreement...

TBILISI, Georgia -- For 60 years the word "Yalta" has meant betrayal and abandonment. The diplomatic accord reached between Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States in that sleepy Black Sea resort relegated millions of people to a ruthless tyranny. As President Bush said last week in Latvia: "The agreement at Yalta followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable." Thankfully, the division of Europe created at Yalta, and the Iron Curtain that marked its boundary, are ghosts in our past. The...

RIGA, Latvia - Second-guessing Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Bush said Saturday the United States played a role in Europe's painful division after World War II — a decision that helped cause "one of the greatest wrongs of history" when the Soviet Union imposed its harsh rule across Central and Eastern Europe. Bush said the lessons of the past will not be forgotten as the United States tries to spread freedom in the Middle East. "We will not repeat the mistakes of other generations, appeasing or excusing tyranny, and sacrificing freedom in the vain pursuit of stability," the president said. "We...

Bush: Baltics betrayed by transfer to Soviet control President on four-nation trip to commemorate end of WWII Sunday, May 8, 2005 Posted: 4:29 AM EDT (0829 GMT) RIGA, Latvia (CNN) -- President Bush, in a speech to the Latvian people on Saturday, called three Baltic nations' transfer to Soviet control after World War II '"one of the greatest wrongs of history." "The Baltic countries have seen one of the most dramatic transformations in modern history, from captive nations to NATO allies and E.U. [European Union] members in little more than a decade," Bush said. He was in Riga, Latvia, speaking...

President Bush acknowledged yesterday that the United States bore some responsibility for Soviet domination and repression in Eastern Europe after World War II, which he called "one of the greatest wrongs in history." Bush gave a harsh assessment of the 1945 Yalta accord, in which Franklin Roosevelt, Josef Stalin and Winston Churchill worked out the post-war reorganization of Europe. Yalta "followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact" in which the Soviet Union and Germany divvied up Poland on the eve of World War II, the president said. "When powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations...

Bush: U.S. Had Hand in European Divisions By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 11 minutes ago Second-guessing Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Bush said Saturday the United States played a role in Europe's painful division after World War II — a decision that helped cause "one of the greatest wrongs of history" when the Soviet Union imposed its harsh rule across Central and Eastern Europe. Bush said the lessons of the past will not be forgotten as the United States tries to spread freedom in the Middle East. "We will not repeat the mistakes of other generations, appeasing or excusing...

Soviets never annexed the Baltic states: Putin Correspondents in Moscow and Washington May 07, 2005 RUSSIA has angrily denied that the Soviet Union ever annexed the Baltic states, fuelling a bitter dispute that is threatening to overshadow Victory in Europe Day celebrations in Moscow on Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that there was no need to apologise further for the "tragedy" inflicted on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as the Soviet act had already been condemned. But he kept to the Kremlin line that the Soviet Union took over the three states by agreement rather than force. "In effect,...