I believe that both Hitler and Stalin looked at the Treaty of Versailles and the resulting creation of ‘new’ nations from their nations’ dismantled empires as an abomination that needed to be corrected.
Stalin wanted ‘Russian Poland’ back (and he got to keep it after WWII!) as well as the Baltic nations and Finland.
Hitler wanted the parts of Poland taken from Germany as well as Austria-Hungary, and the Free City of Danzig. And he felt it only right that he get all of what used to be the A-H empire.
The fact that the Finns, Poles, Czechs, etc. didn’t want to be back in the old empires meant less than nothing to either Hitler or Stalin.
Exactly. They envied Britain and France with their colonies, and figured they were entitled to their “empires” as well.
At that time, the creation of these nations in Europe was based on the theory of “Self-determination”. The USA has been a strong supporter of this. Giving the Philippines their independence was part of it—in that such a believe rose up at that time. We were, as a former group of colonies untied in independence from a colonial power, sensitive about that.
It isn’t new, nor is it a democrat or neo-con philosophy.
Allowing or being for people running their own affairs is part of Americanism. Nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq was a neo-con corruption of this.
Paleo-cons know this and don’t support neo-con/Globalist OR Russian hegemony over other peoples.